A Chinese compass consisting of a wide thin disk of wood painted black. At the centre of the compass is a small shallow bowl containing a dry-pivot needle. The needle is thin and no longer than an inch (2.5cm). The needle points south. There is a line in the bowl indicating the north-south direction. Surrounding the bowl are seven concentric rings, each divided into segments and marked with either symbols or Chinese characters painted in gold and red.

The third row is divided into 24 parts indicating the traditional azimuthal directions in 15 degree increments. Each segment contains one Chinese character, which together consist of the 20 cyclical characters and four gua (trigrams). These characters 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 refer to directions, the characters in the North, South, East and West directions are not the characters or the literal translations for these directions. Rather, they are the traditional characters from the geomancer's compass. Wu, Kun, Shen, Xu, Qian, Ren, Zi, Gui, Yin, Jia, Yi, and Chen are red and all other characters are painted black. The red and black characters in this row represent the pure ying and pure yang. This is repeated in the fifth ring. This ring is found on all Chinese geomantic compasses.

Painted characters on the inside of the lid read, 'Fu Zhang He Ang Xiao Zao'. This translates as, 'Manufactured by He Angxiao, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province'. He Angxiao is either a personal name or the brand-name of the maker or manufacturer. Zhangzhou, a prefecture of Fujian Province, was famous for geomancy and manufacturing geomantic compasses.