Chinese man with no hand

Yesterday I bought two Chinese figurines, one a male and the other a female. The male as you can see, is missing his left hand, the female her right hand. There must be some sort of significance to the absence of a hand because this isn't the first time I've seen this. I'm going to show the female figurine too. I've been told that they have two different makers. I'm not sure when they were made, maybe someone can help me out answering that question and possibly what kilns they came from.