Five Hundred Arhats No.129 · The Venerable Heap of Wisdom | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.129 The Venerable Heap of Wisdom

'Heap of wisdom' means amassing wisdom at large, cultivating merit and wisdom together, gathering boundless awareness as one heaps jewels; the name marks one steeped in learning whose store of wisdom runs deep. The venerable seems to hold a scripture with an inward expression, possessing the fullness of accumulated learning and stored wisdom, balanced absorption and wisdom, illumining all phenomena through a deep store of insight.

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