Five Hundred Arhats No.124 · The Venerable Self-Purified | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.124 The Venerable Self-Purified

'Self-purified' is the saying 'do no evil, practice all good, purify your own mind—this is the teaching of all buddhas,' meaning to cleanse one's own heart and cut the source of affliction; the name marks one who cultivates inward, his mind free of stain. The venerable draws his gaze and hearing inward with a pure expression, possessing the practice of constant self-examination, thought-by-thought purification, and returning to the clarity of the original mind.

Painted by Li Zongyi in the freehand Chinese ink (xieyi) tradition, the brushwork is fluent and the ink tones layered from dense to pale, capturing the arhat’s spirit in a few assured strokes. The blank paper itself breathes Zen; figure and spirit are one, blending monastic solemnity with the literati’s ease. Each of the Five Hundred Arhats bears its own name and practice, uniting faith, art and collectibility — an original, non-reproducible hand-painted work.

Size: approx. 100×50cm (4.5 square chi) | Traditional hand-painted Chinese ink Zen Buddhist figure painting | On paper