"Kung Fu": TV Series, In Uncertain Bondage

#31 (Prod #166216) "In Uncertain Bondage"
Teleplay By: Abe Polsky & Ed Waters(also 12, 24, 32 & 43)
Directed By: Richard Lang (also # 5, 17, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29, 33, 35, 37-38, 39, 42, 45-6)
First Broadcast: ABC, February 7, 1974
Guest Stars: Warren Vanders, Judy Pace
Special Guest: Lynda Day George
Regular Cast: David Carradine, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Radames Pera

Caine stumbles onto a kidnapping and is thrown into a pit with a Southern lady who only knows what it is to be served, not what it is to serve others. In flashbacks Master Kan teaches the young Caine to regard serving and being served as the same.

"Someone is ill. I wish to help." - Caine

"I am grateful to be of service." - Caine

"I am grateful." - Caine, when offered a ride

"Do not the ancients say, 'Rank and reward have no appeal for a man one with himself.'" - Master Kan quoting CHUANG TZU Chapter 17 #3 (Merton rendition of the Legge translation not found in the current Mair translation)

"Your friends are not true." - Caine

"That is sad." - Caine, when told someone had been spared the experience of serving others

"I [am grateful] to you for allowing me to be of service." - Master Kan

"If in serving one is served and in being served one also serves, are these not folds of the same garment?" - Master Kan

"A man truly himself will not enrich his own interests and make a virtue of poverty. He goes his way without depending on others, yet is not arrogant that he needs no other. The greatest man is nobody." - Master Kan, quoting CHUANG TZU Chap. 17 #3 (Merton rendition of Legge trans. not in current Mair)

"The sage says, 'That which shrinks must first expand. That which fails must first be strong. That which is cast down, must first be raised. Before receiving there must first be giving.'" - Kan quoting the TAO TE CHING #36

"Is it not easy to bow and still honor oneself?" - Master Kan

"Are we not equally important and not important. I am old, you are young. I am wrinkled, you are smooth. Do these things change the nature we share? Look beyond the surface. See what is real in yourself and others." - Master Kan

"How can you invite death when there is still life?" - Caine

"Your need is greater." - Caine, when offering the only food and liquid to his fellow prisoner though he is the one who has been wounded

"You cared for me. I am grateful." - Caine

"Serving and being served: folds in the same garment." - Caine

Caine gives away his headband and from now on wears nothing on his head.