A Chinese compass consisting of a bowl covered with glass and containing a dry-pivot needle, with the north-south direction indicated by a metal wire over the glass. Around the rim are 24 Chinese characters indicating the traditional azimuthal directions in 15 degree increments. These characters come from a row found on all Chinese geomantic compasses. It is believed that the Chinese mariner's compass developed out of the geomantic one. Together the characters consist of the 20 cyclical characters and 4 gua (trigrams). They are arranged in the Zheng Zhen (lit. 'correct needle') position (i.e. the north-south direction). Beginning with the character in the South position and moving clockwise the characters are: Wu, Ding, Wei, Kun, Shen, Geng, You, Xin, Xu, Qian, Hai, Ren, Zi, Gui, Chou, Gen, Yin, Jia, Mao, Yi, Chen, Xun, Si and Bing. Although the characters do refer to directions, the characters in the North, South, East and West directions are not the characters or the literal translations for these directions, but are the traditional characters from the geomancer's compass. In most Chinese mariner's compasses the character indicating the direction 'South' is red, while all other characters are black, but on this particular compass the characters alternate three black and three red (beginning with Wu and going clockwise). Although the significance of this is unknown the variation of black and red characters on the geomantic compass represents the pure ying and the pure yang.

On the obverse side of the lid there are 12 Chinese characters in black which read, 'Jia Jia Fu De Zui Ren Gui / Gu Su Cao Wan Chang'. The verse 'Jia Jia Fu De Zui Ren Gui' is from a seven-character quatrain entitled 'She Ri' (Shrine Festival) written by Wang Jia (c. 890), a Tang poet. It can be translated as 'Every family helping their drunken ones home'. It indicates how joyful the festival is. Gusu is an alternative name of Wu Xian (Wu County) of Jiangsu Province. Cao Wangchang is probably the name of the maker. The reserve side of the compass is badly damaged due to the deterioration of the lacquer, making much of the writing illegible. The characters 'Jin Chang Xia Tang' are legible, as are 'Cao [...] Zhi'. Jinchang stands for Wu Xian (Wu County) of Jiangsu Province. Xiatang is most likely the name of a place in Wu County. 'Cao [...]' probably means 'manufactured by Mr. Cao'. The Chinese characters for the number 14 also appear in small writing on both the edge of the compass and the lid.