Five Hundred Arhats No.330 · The Venerable Worthy One, the Great Being | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.330 The Venerable Worthy One, the Great Being

Here 'being' is the great person (mahāpuruṣa) and 'worthy one' is an old rendering of arhat, one worthy of offerings, meaning the great person who cultivates and realizes the true way and deserves the offerings of gods and men; the name marks a great being who is a worthy one, an arhat. The venerable has the air of a great being with a dignified look, possessing the resolve of a great person, cultivation of the true way, worthiness without falsehood, realizing the fruit of no-more-learning through true wisdom.

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