Five Hundred Arhats No.85 · The Venerable Hard to Match Even by the Seven Buddhas | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.85 The Venerable Hard to Match Even by the Seven Buddhas

The 'seven buddhas' are the seven buddhas of the past, and 'hard to match' means his spiritual power is profound and supremely hard to equal; the name marks one whose lineage continues the Dharma of the seven past buddhas, whose vows run too deep to fathom. The venerable has an ancient, solemn bearing and a devout expression, showing the weight of one who transmits the Buddha's mind-seal, carries forward the Buddha-seed and inherits the style of the seven buddhas.

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