Yuan dynasty paintings of Buddhist and Taoist figures, especially Lohan depictions, have always been regarded as representing an epoch of decay. But taking a look at those paintings which are now scattered in Japanese，European，American，and Chinese collections we realize that Yuan Lohan paintings actually showed a lively variety of style. In terms of technique，they continued the different styles of Southern Sung painting schools while displaying the tendency to blend them. As to arrangement，they overcame traditionally established forms and succeeded in developing remarkable structures. And concerning the execution of the figures, they were fond of depicting them realistically as Indians.
In order to amend the incomplete records of the traditional history of Chinese painting the present paper first lists the painters enumerated in the works dealing with the history of Yuan painting，and then introduces those artists whose works have come down to us but who are not mentioned in the literature. Next the extant Yuan dynasty Lohan paintings are，according to style and lineage, divided into schools like the black and white contour painting tradition，the tradition of painting with ink and water besides practicing ch'an ，the vocational painting school of Ning-po，the school of "academic" painting，the Indian form etc. Lohan paintings presently kept at the Palace Museum, Taipei，the `Kyoto` and `Tokyo` Museums, the `Shokoku-ji`，`Lyuko-in`，and in `Tokai-an` in `Kyoto`，the `Seika-do` and Tsiba `Hokkekyo-ji` in `Tokyo`，the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and some private collections are adducted to illustrate these categories and to collaborate their validity. They prove that，though painting was not encouraged by the Yuan court，the Lohan depictions of that time with their peculiar style cannot be neglected.
