Five Hundred Arhats No.117 · The Venerable Awakened and Penetrating | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.117 The Venerable Awakened and Penetrating

'Awaken' is to break delusion and personally realize innate awakening, and 'penetrate' is to understand without obstruction; the name marks one who awakens to principle and penetrates affairs, fusing principle and fact, free within the Dharma. The venerable looks suddenly clear and open-browed, possessing the liberated air of one awakened once and forever, who penetrates reality and is not bound by conditions.

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