Five Hundred Arhats No.87 · The Venerable Skilful Treasury of Dharma | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.87 The Venerable Skilful Treasury of Dharma

'Skilful means' is the wisdom to guide beings adaptively, and the 'Dharma treasury' holds the inexhaustible Dharma; the name marks one who opens that treasury through countless means and teaches to fit each capacity. The venerable gestures as if expounding with a kindly expression, possessing the harmonious skill of converting beings according to their needs, teaching the essentials well so each gains what benefits them.

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