Five Hundred Arhats No.376 · The Venerable Stainless Virtue | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.376 The Venerable Stainless Virtue

'Stainless virtue' means his virtue is pure and free of stain, beyond all dust and defilement, like a pure bright jewel, his innate virtue untouched by a speck of dust; the name marks one whose virtue is beyond stain, pure and bright. The venerable looks clean and clear, possessing the clarity of stainless purity, virtue beyond defilement, bright as a pearl, revealing innate pure merit through a stainless heart.

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