Five Hundred Arhats No.291 · The Venerable Bearer of the Great Physician | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.291 The Venerable Bearer of the Great Physician

'Bearer of the great physician' means holding the method of the great king of physicians: the Buddha is the great physician who heals beings' heart-illness of affliction, giving medicine to fit the disease; the name marks one who carries the great physician's method, healing beings' illness with the medicine of Dharma. The venerable makes a holding or comforting gesture with a compassionate look, possessing the great physician's art, giving medicine to fit the illness, healing the disease of affliction, kindly treating beings' heart-illness with Dharma medicine.

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