Hunting Scene (detail)

Muyong Tomb, 5th century A.D.
Ji'an city, Jilin province, China

The hunter at the top of the frame is twisting back in his saddle to make a "Parthian shot." His plumed headdress is like the one shown in the dancing scene. Below, a tiger is pursued by a hunter and a dog. The scene continues on the right (next page).

In the painting, the hunters' bows and the deer's horns are outlined in black but not colored in; this is an artistic convention to indicate bone-colored objects, including the dragon's claws on much later Joseon vases. The wavy humped objects are mountains, and their convention incorporates the use of color: white mountains are closer, red ones are in the middle distance, and yellow ones are far away. The glyph-like scroll above the deer is a "lucky cloud" that marks this scene as auspicious.