Disclosed is a hard coating excellent in wear resistance, insusceptible to seizure, and excellent sliding property even after use over the long term, and a method capable of forming the hard coating excellent in sliding property in a short time. The hard coating is a hard coating expressed by chemical formula MxBaCbNc, wherein M is at least one kind of metallic element selected from the group consisting of elements in the groups 4A, 5A, and 6A of the periodic table, and Si, Al, the hard coating having chemical composition satisfying respective formulas expressed by 0<=a<=0.2, 0<=c<=0.2, 0<x-a-c, x-a-c<b<=0.9, 0.05<=x<=0.5, and x+a+b+c=1, where x, a, b, and c denote respective atomic ratios of M, B, C, and N.