The illustration shows an old man sitting cross-legged, naked to the waist. He wears his hair in a topknot and has a moustache and a long beard, which he is stroking with his fingers. Various acu-moxa locations of the small intestine channel of hand taiyang are marked and labelled on his upper body. The small intestine channel of hand taiyang is one of the Twelve Channels. It originates at the shaoze (Lesser Marsh) point and terminates at the tinggong (Palace of Hearing) point, on the face. For a list of point names, see 'Lettering'.
N.B. The acupuncture charts in the Shou Li Lu ('Ancient Oak Hut') series of books were made in the early 20th century, in the last years of the Qing period (1644-1911). However, the old man in this illustration wears his hair in the style of the preceding Ming dynasty (1368-1644), which was overthrown by the Qing, while the human figures in the remaining 19 illustrations are almost all hairless, and none of them has the distinctive queue and shaven forehead of the Qing. Presumably, the artist intended by this means to express opposition to the Qing regime.
