中文 
en 
The "Ming Dynasty Palm Leaf Painting of the Buddha" housed in the Hunan Provincial Museum in China, apart from those formerly collected at Zhusheng Temple on Mount Heng of Nanyue, were mostly acquired. Although their contents vary greatly, their quality is uneven. The National Palace Museum in Taipei holds 30 paintings depicting 500 Arhats. The colophon claims they were painted during Gao Shiqi’s visit to the museum, and include a handwritten inscription by Zhang Taiyan from 1930; the facing page features Jin Ni’s transcription of the "Jade Pivot Sutra" of the Daoist temple, and the official compilation "Complete Collection of Bodhi Arhats." However, this album is not from the Qing imperial collection; it was donated to an entrepreneur in the 1980s. Its costume and painting style differ significantly from those of the Beijing Palace Museum and Anyue. Whether it originated from the Qing imperial court remains debatable.
Summarizing the currently collected palm leaf paintings both domestically and internationally, one can observe that such artworks are generally bound in butterfly albums, with each folio depicting one Arhat in sets of the Eighteen Arhats, or multiple Arhats in sets of five hundred, accompanied by inscriptions or sutra texts on the leaves corresponding to each Arhat, as well as concave protective pages carved to match the shape and size of the palm leaves.
Yue, this set of palm leaf Arhat paintings should have been gold-lined and inscribed, or accompanied by sutra poems with signatures, further adorned with tapestry binding. The original album likely contained inscriptions, seals, and other markings. Since the painters employed in the office at that time held low ranks, their works generally bore no signatures beyond dates and years. Now that they have been disbound and mounted individually in frames, other information is irrecoverable. Following the sequence of similar albums, the first and second folios should depict the Four Heavenly Kings, with one depicting a child paying homage to Guanyin and Wei Tuo.
According to the Annals of Anyue County, many local temples once held paintings of the "Baiyue Sutra," but these disappeared gradually with dynastic changes. Although this palm leaf Arhat album in Anyue’s collection did not originate from any local temple, among its more than 400 grottoes, there remain the most systematic and exquisite Arhat sculptures in China, spanning from the early Tang to the late Qing dynasties—such as the monk figures beneath the sixteen Arhat niches in the Jueyuan Cave of the Five Dynasties period and the Ming Dynasty’s Eighteen Arhats in the Dabore Cave—all treasures in the history of Arhat sculpture. Together with this Qing Dynasty Arhat painting album, they enrich and expand the physical evidence for studying the evolution of Chinese Arhat traditions.
Palm leaf painting constitutes a unique method within Chinese Buddhist art, representing a Buddhist painting tradition and medium worthy of exploration. To date, it has not received due attention, systematic study, or scholarly discussion. Whether in terms of artistic expression, religious civilization, or political manipulation, these works played a vibrant role among the diverse cultural categories of Qing society. Their artistic, cultural, and historical value cannot be overlooked—they are artistic treasures of the Sinicization process of Buddhism.