Five Hundred Arhats No.315 · The Venerable Cleansing the Inmost | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.315 The Venerable Cleansing the Inmost

The name "Yixichang" is recorded in the Southern Song Arhat-Name Stele; it means using wise discernment to wash away the accumulated taint within, as though cleansing the inmost being to purify the defilement of affliction and restore the heart to clarity. The name marks one who discerns with wisdom and cleanses heart and thought. The venerable makes a contemplating-and-purifying gesture with a pure look, possessing wisdom-cleansed heart, removal of accumulated taint, washing away of affliction, and restored inner clarity.

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