Five Hundred Arhats No.23 · The Venerable of the Ever-Abiding Teaching | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.23 The Venerable of the Ever-Abiding Teaching

His name means that the Buddha's teaching abides forever, undestroyed through the ages, transmitted without break through voice, word and text. He appears as though expounding the Dharma with earnest countenance, embodying the resolve to establish the sacred teaching through eloquence and let the true Dharma long abide in the world.

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