A small Chinese compass consisting of a wide thin disk of wood. At the centre of the compass is a small shallow bowl containing a dry-pivot needle that points south, with a line in the bowl indicating the north-south direction. Surrounding the bowl are 15 concentric rings, each divided and marked with either symbols or Chinese characters. The first row is divided into eight segments each with one of the eight trigrams. The trigrams on this particular compass are arranged in the everted form of the Fu Hsi, one of the formulations of the eight trigrams. It has been argued that the everted form of the Fu Hsi trigram circle appeared on compasses used for Feng Shui, which would identify this as a geomancer's compass.

The third row is divided into 24 parts indicating the traditional azimuthal directions. Each part contains one Chinese character, which in total consist of 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 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. 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, and is the only row of characters found on Chinese mariner's compasses.

The Chinese characters painted on the back of the compass read, 'Xin An Xiu Yi Wu Lu Heng'. Xin'an ('Xin An') was the alternative name of Huizhou Prefecture in Anhui Province during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911AD). Xiu Yi means Xiu County, i.e. Xiuning County, a manufacturing centre for compasses and sundials. Wu Luheng ('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.

The 64 Chinese characters painted within a square on the back of the compass most likely indicate messages of fortune and misfortune as derived from the eight trigrams.