武宗元擅画道释人物，曾为开封、洛阳各寺观作大量壁画。工人物、佛道、鬼神，师吴道子法，行笔如流水，神采活动，大抵如写草书，笔术精高。年十七即能画北邙山老子庙壁，颇称“精绝”。尝于洛阳上清宫画三十六天帝，其间赤明和阳天帝画成宋太宗相貌，真宗赵恒见之，叹其画笔之神。曾在广爱寺见吴道子画文殊、普贤大像，武由此杜绝人事旬余，专在广爱寺刻意临摹。结果临摹之画骨格停分，神观气格，大衣缨络，乘跨部从，与大像不差毫厘，真灵心妙悟之天才也。景德末(1007)，真宗营建玉清昭应宫，召天下画师三千，中选者仅百余人，分为二部，武宗元任左部之长。

 在洛阳，开封各寺观画了大量壁画，如洛阳上清宫《三十六帝像》，中岳天封观《圣帝出队图》，许昌龙兴寺《帝释梵王相》、经藏院画《旃檀瑞像》、嵩岳庙画《出队》等壁画。传世作品有《朝元仙仗图》卷，绢本，墨笔，纵58厘米，横777.5厘米，人物形象端庄丰满，仪态万方，气象不凡，无款印，是一幅道教壁画的稿本，画的是道教帝君，诸神仙朝谒元始天尊的对仗行列，共81人，人物神采飞扬，衣袂飘举，线条疏密有致，劲健流畅。卷后有南宋乾道八年(1172)张子珉题跋，并有元代赵孟頫题识，定为武宗元真迹，现藏美国王季迁先生怀云楼。

 Wu Zongyuan (about 980-1050), the first name of Zongdao, in short. He is from Baibo, Henan Province. Painters of the Northern Song Dynasty. During the reign of Jingde of Song Zhenzong, Zhaoying Palace of Yuqing was built, and national painters were recruited. There were two parts. Zongyuan was the leader of the left. His family was a Confucian. He was a Zhai Lang in Yintai Temple and a Wai Lang in Yu Department. He is good at painting Taoist and Buddhist figures and has painted a lot of murals for Kaifeng and Luoyang temples.

Wu Zongyuan is good at painting Taoist and Buddhist figures. He has made a lot of murals for Kaifeng and Luoyang temples. Workers, Buddhist Taoists, ghosts and gods, like Wu Daozi's method, write like running water, graceful activities, mostly like writing cursive scripts, with excellent brushwork skills. In 17th year, he was able to draw the wall of Laozi Temple in Beiyongshan, which is quite called "elite". Taste the 36-day emperor painted by the Shangqing Palace in Luoyang, during which Chiming and Yang Tiandi painted the appearance of Taizong in Song Dynasty. Zhenzong Zhao Hengjian sighed at the God of his brush. Wu Daozi once painted Manjusri and Puxian statues in Guangai Temple. Wu put an end to personnel for more than ten years, and specialized in deliberate copying in Guangai Temple. Result The skeleton of the copying picture was stopped, the spirit and spirit, the coat and collateral, the cross-departmental subordinate, and the genius of the true mind and ingenuity was no different from the image. Jingdemo (1007), Zhenzong built the Jade Qing Zhaoying Palace and called the world's painters 3000. Only a hundred people were selected. They were divided into two parts. Wu Zongyuan was the head of the left.