Five Hundred Arhats No.317 · The Venerable Stainless Store | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.317 The Venerable Stainless Store

'Stainless store' means the store of merit is pure without stain, like a clear jewel glowing within and without, the Dharma it holds beyond all defilement; the name marks one whose store of merit is pure and stainless. The venerable looks luminous and clear, possessing the radiance of a stainless store, pure beyond defilement, like a flawless jewel, taking stainless merit as the store of one's own nature.

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