Hand Symbol

[white tiger]

Does anyone know what the symbol on the grasshopper shirt in this issue of kung fu magazine represents ? That would be the hand symbol from the old Kung Fu series on the back of David Carradines uniform, just curious. THANKS!

[David Jamieson]

It means "spankings for all!"

at one time, spankings were popular.

[Oso]

LOL, you've just gotten plain mean since you quit moderating.

be nice to the new guy.


white tiger: I'd heard it referred to Iron Palm but since it's a TV show...who knows.

[GeneChing]

I'm wearing my grasshopper shirt right now and ain't nobody spanking me.

You know, I met Carridine a few years back on book tour after he wrote Spriti of Shaolin. He was wearing this silk shirt with 'the hand'. I'm not sure that it's rooted in anything beyond the artistic vision of a costumer of the old TV series. There are lots of hand symbols in Buddhism, but the Kung Fu hand doesn't really look like any of those.

Maybe ol' KL is right. To quote the gospel of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "A spanking! A spanking!"

[norther practitioner]

I'm wearing my grasshopper shirt right now and ain't nobody spanking me.

You need better trained Nacho Cheese covered Ninjettes.

[David Jamieson]

well, let's pretend it's a buddhist Mudra for a second.

If it were a buddhist mudra it would be representative of 'Abhaya Mudra' which is also known as the "Gesture of fearlesness" or "the Gesture of Renunciation" and is related to the qualities of Protection, Reassurance and Blessing.

A Mudra is a hand gesture used in statuary of the Buddha.

Abhaya is the sanskrit word for "fearlessness"

The buddha is often seen in icons with his right hand held palm out and fingers up while his left hand rests in his lap. This is the gesture known as Abhaya Mudra.

There ya go. If you're gonna ascribe any meaning to an old shirt from a tv show, I think that that little tid bit will best serve you.

P.S I am not sh1tting you, this is 100% true and verifiable, so take it fwiw.

[GeneChing]

You need better trained Nacho Cheese covered Ninjettes.

Tell me about it, man, tell me about it.

In the center of the palm, there's a quatrefoil-shaped pattern. Four is a big number in Buddhism, such as the four noble truths, the four heaven kings or the four arms of a swastika, but I've not seen a quatrefoil there yet. I think that part of the symbol interests me the most.

[David Jamieson]

Ah the Quatrefoil.

G~ Is gonna go medieval architectural on our asses with that.

trefoil, quatrefoil, cinqfoil all have variations in meaning depending upon the culture they are used in.

The trefoil for instance is given the meaning of the trinity that is the godhead of Catholic religion.

The quatrefoil is given many different meanings by the users of them in both art and architecture and this is teh one that morphs into the swastika that is found in ancient cultural archeological sites all over the world.

the cinqfoil is another one that is the symbol of the rose for some and the symbol of teh plumflower for others and so on.

They are shapes that can express a great many concepts but if ya ain't hip to the esoteric grind with the specific pattern in general, then you'll just have to get initiated and find the meaning you want it to have.