Belt slide with a falcon attacking a swan

Belt slide with a falcon attacking a swan

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This carved jade belt slide shows a small falcon hunting a wild goose amid lotus flowers. The motif symbolizes the spring hunt of the Jurchens, a seminomadic people who lived beyond China’s Great Wall in the northeast. Known as chunshui (spring water) in historical texts, the hunt was an important annual Jurchen ritual that Mongol and Manchu royalty continued during the later dynasties. The motif appears widely on ceramics, textiles, and other media.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Belt slide with a falcon attacking a swanBelt slide with a falcon attacking a swanBelt slide with a falcon attacking a swanBelt slide with a falcon attacking a swanBelt slide with a falcon attacking a swan

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.