"Kung Fu": TV Series, An Eye for an Eye

#4 (Prod #166144) "An Eye for an Eye"
Teleplay By:: John Furia, Jr. (story editor & later producer of 1^st half of 2^nd season)
Directed By:: Jerry Thorpe (also pilot & #1-3, 16, 18 & 40)
First Broadcast: ABC, January 25, 1973
Guest Stars: L.Q. Jones (also #57), Tim McIntire (also #16 & he plays Danny Caine in #59, 61 & 62), Harry Townes, Special Guest Star: Lane Bradbury
Regular Cast: David Carradine, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Radames Pera

This episode which is about vengeance for a rape won an Emmy for best director and another for best cinematographer. Jerry Thorpe was also nominated for a Director's Guild Award for it. Throughout the story people keep asking, "If I don't have a right to vengeance, who does?" Caine finally answers: "No one."

Pilot & First Season
Available on DVD

"'All life is sacred. Thus the joining together of man and woman is always honored. Apart there is no life. But from such union, life may proceed.' -Master Kan
'Then life must be always defended.' -Young Caine
'The thorn defends the rose. It harms only those who would steal the blossom from the plant.'" -Master Kan

"'Mister, I am in your debt.' -said to Caine
'No more than the leaf owes the root. In water and sunlight both grow together.'" -Caine

"A child cannot be made ugly by the unhappiness that begins it." -Caine

"I know about 'war.' It is a word men use to clothe the nakedness of their killing." -Caine

"Will vengeance ease your pain?" -Caine

"'Vengeance is a water vessel with a hole. It carries nothing but the promise of emptiness.' -Master Po
'Shall I then repay injury always with kindness?' -Young Caine
'Repay injury with justice and forgiveness, but kindness always with kindness.'" -Po

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"Where is the honor in what you do?" -Caine, on a duel for vengeance, called 'an affair of honor'

"Get in touch with what you feel." -Caine

"Once mighty waters hurdled themselves against rock. And from these two harsh strengths came this most gentle sand." -Caine

"Fear is the enemy. Trust is the armor." -Master Po

"He who conquers himself is the greatest warrior. Do what must be done with a docile heart." -Master Po

"Listen for the color of the sky. Look for the sound of the hummingbird's wings. Search the air for the perfume of ice on a hot day. If you have found these things, you will know." -Master Po

"To feel shame for no cause is a waste. To feel shame for cause is also a waste; for you must rather spend time correcting that of which you are ashamed." -Master Po

"He who knows how to live need not fear death. He can walk without fear of rhino or tiger. He will not be wounded in battle.... In him the rhino can find no place to thrust his horn, the tiger no place to use his claws, and weapons no place to pierce.... Because a man who knows how to live has no place for death to enter." -Master Po (quoting the TAO TE CHING chapter #50 [F])

"Before we wake, we cannot know that what we dreamed does not exist. Before we die we cannot know that death is not the greatest joy." -Caine

"To hate is like drinking salt water. The thirst grows worst." -Caine

"Hate is the tomb you weave. It will not save you from your suffering." -Caine

"To be one with yourself is a power within you." - Caine

"I am a man. I care." - Caine

Caine carries several seedlings around with him during this story, taking them out and planting them now and then. But we don't see him doing so again except in #27 "The Gunman".