Five Hundred Arhats No.282 · The Venerable Vow Firm as the Southern Mountain | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.282 The Venerable Vow Firm as the Southern Mountain

'Vow firm as the southern mountain' means one's vow is as unshakable and enduring as Mount Zhongnan, the mountain's unmoving weight a figure for a firm vow; the name marks one whose vow stands like a mountain, never wavering. The venerable looks steadfast and grave, possessing the gravity of a vow firm as a mountain planted in the earth, never retreating, upholding bodhi through a steadfast great vow.

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