Welcoming spring

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Chinese, both goats and sheep are called yang 羊, which sounds like the word for “sun” (yang 陽). Three goats together, a motif repeated three times here, thus evokes the phrase “three suns welcome spring” (sanyang kaitai 三陽開泰), a wish for an auspicious new year taken from the ancient Book of Change (Yi Jing).

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art