Five Hundred Arhats No.402 · The Venerable Illusory Light, Empty | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.402 The Venerable Illusory Light, Empty

'Illusory light, empty' means seeing all dharmas as illusion, like light and shadow, empty of self-nature by origin, not clinging to illusory appearances of light, realizing they are empty in themselves; the name marks one who contemplates illusion and awakens to emptiness, not attached to illusory marks. The venerable makes an emptiness-contemplation gesture with a translucent look, possessing the clarity of seeing illusion, realizing emptiness, not clinging to light-marks, awakening to true emptiness within illusory dharmas.

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