A Chinese compass consisting of a wide thin disk of wood. At the centre of the compass is a small shallow bowl containing a short, thin dry-pivot needle that points south. There is a line in the bowl indicating the north-south direction. Surrounding the bowl are 16n concentric rings, each divided into segments and marked with either symbols or Chinese characters painted in gold and red.

The fourth 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 ceedle') 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. 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 row is found on all Chinese geomantic compasses.

There are 64 Chinese characters painted on the back of the compass within a grid, with a further seven characters on each side of the grid. The 64 characters probably indicate messages of fortune and misfortune as derived from the eight trigrams. The characters painted on the right side of the grid (from top to bottom) read, 'Xin An Xiu Yi' and the characters painted on the left side (from top to bottom) read, 'Wu Lu Heng'. Xin'an (here 'Xin An') was the alternative name of Huizhou Prefecture in Anhui Province during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911 AD). Xiu Yi means Xiu County, i.e. Xiuning County, an important centre for manufacturing compasses and sundials. Wu Luheng (here 'Wu Lu Heng') was a personal name or a brand-name of the compass maker. One website of a current compass manufacturer in China, claiming to be the legacy of Wu Luheng, states that the original Wu Luheng was born in 1702 in Xiuning County, Anhui Province and became the apprentice to Fang Xiushui (the maker of the sundial ACO0455). Wu Luheng became a brand-name for compasses, and several generations made compasses under this manufacturer's name.