Five Hundred Arhats No.375 · The Venerable Removing Beings' Sorrow | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.375 The Venerable Removing Beings' Sorrow

'Removing beings' sorrow' means taking sorrow and suffering away from beings, delivering them through compassion, freeing them from grief and distress, giving ease without sorrow; the name marks one compassionate in removing suffering, universally ending sorrow. The venerable makes a comforting gesture with a pitying look, possessing the compassion of removing beings' sorrow, delivering through compassion, giving joy and ease, universally freeing beings from sorrow through a pitying 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