This particular drawing of Kung Fu Panda is inspired by this ancient Chinese painting of the 3 pillars of Chinese Culture - Daoism/Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. Here's the link to the drawing of "The Vinegar Tasters" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vinegar_Tasters

As you can see, I have these three from Kung Fu Panda to cosplay as the three sages who are immensely important to Chinese culture and civilization.

Shifu takes on the role of Confucius http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius Since Shifu trained Po with food as motivation, which fits one of Confucius quote of 因材施教 "teach according to the student’s ability/characteristic". I figure

Po takes on the role of the Laughing Buddha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_Buddha since he has the size for the role. :P And not to mention the fact that when he delivered the finishing blow to Tai Long, the shot was a parody to the Buddha Palm attack in Kung Fu Hustle.

Oogway suppose to take on the role of Laozi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Zi but I realized that Laozi's outfit would assemble to Confucius' too much (they are from the same era). So I gave him the outfit of a Taoist priest which we see more often in modern temples and TV shows. Yellow gown and the dark hat look kinda interesting on his greenish body. But the most important part is Master Oogway's ascending with the peach petals. That particular part of the story is inspired by the Taoist mythology of enlightened people reached the immortal status and become the one with the universe (ascend to another world, away from the earthly things and life&death).

Furthermore, the direction they look at represents Heaven, Mortal & Earth. The Three Realms.

I'll try to write some more information and my inspiration later.

I didn't write the calligraphy other than my name above the red stamp. I really wish i can write calligraphy that well and stylish.

Kungfu Panda characters belong to Dreamwork or whoever created them.