Five Hundred Arhats No.217 · The Venerable Cutter of Affliction | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.217 The Venerable Cutter of Affliction

'Cutter of affliction' means severing every fetter and defilement and realizing the heart's liberation—affliction exhausted, the holy life established; the name marks one who has cut delusion, realized the true and done what was to be done. The venerable makes a severing gesture with a resolute look, possessing the pure liberation of cutting affliction, freeing the heart, taking no further becoming, the task fulfilled.

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