Five Hundred Arhats No.188 · The Venerable Lightning-Flash | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.188 The Venerable Lightning-Flash

'Lightning-flash' is wisdom like lightning, illumining in an instant, swift and sharp, likening the quickness of sudden awakening and the speed of cutting delusion; the name marks one whose wisdom-blade is swift, clear in a single thought. The venerable looks alert and sharp with a darting gaze, possessing the quickness of lightning-bright insight that cuts delusion in an instant and breaks folly at one flash of wisdom-light.

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