Wan'an Compass

E-mail lunthesis@163.com Phone 0551-65179860-203

Wan'an Compass

Pub Date:2022-08-12 17:13 Source:cnanhui.org

Known as the national intangible cultural heritage, Wan'an Compass is the national geographic indication products in China, which comes from Wan'an Town, Xiuning County, Anhui Province. It has widely applied into astronomy, geography, military affairs, navigation, divination, housing and burial site. Regard as the continuation and development of compass in ancient China, Wan’an compass originated from the Yuan Dynasty. It is famous for its unique design, well-selected materials, excellent workmanship level and great varieties with the reputation as “Hui Compass”.

Wan’an compass is made up of a magnetic needle and a direction plate. Compasses can be divided into "marine compass" and "inland compass", according to the structure of magnetic needle devices. It can also be divided into Sanhe compass, Sanyuan compass and composite compass, based on different plate types. The production of a compass should go through 7 procedures, including wood materials selection, blank production, drawing lines, polishing, writing, painting and installation of magnetic needle. The wood materials selection is very strict, only ginkgo trees and Hugu wood can be chosen as the materials for making Wan’an compass.

Wan’an Compass carries the cultural information of ancient Chinese astronomy, geography, environment, philosophy, architecture, inherits the magnetic guide technology and other related skills, and provides valuable information for the study of the history of ancient Chinese science and technology, social history, the environment of human settlement and culture of ancient Huizhou.