A Chinese compass consisting of a wide thin disk of lacquered wood with a small shallow bowl containing a dry-pivot needle at the centre. There is a line in the bowl indicating the north-south direction. Surrounding the bowl are 14 concentric rings, each divided into segments and marked with either symbols or Chinese characters. The fourth row is divided into 24 parts indicating the traditional azimuthal directions. 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, 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.

While much of the writing on the back of the compass is indecipherable due to the deterioration of the lacquer, the personal name of 'Wang Yangxi' is legible. Wang Yangxi was probably a famous name used as a signature by several generations of compass and sundial artisans coming from Huizhou Prefecture, Anhui Province in the Qing dynasty. It is unclear whether 'Wang Yangxi' was the personal name of a particular maker. What is certain is that one of the most well-known sundial manufacturers from Huizhou since at least the 18th century had the Wang surname. Wang was also one of the most prominent surnames of Huizhou, which was in turn known for the success of its merchants who played an important role of the commercial development of China in the Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing (1644-1911 AD) dynasties.