A GEOMANCER’S COMPASS, LUOPAN, BY FANG XIU-SHUI, CIRCA 1850
Lot 390 - FAS1025

China, Anhui, Xiuning. The wooden case is of circular form, finely engraved with twelve concentric rings of Chinese characters and trigrams from the I Ching (Yijing or Book of Changes), centering on a small magnetic needle housed within a glass-covered dial.

The reverse is neatly incised with a grid of further inscriptions and annotations.

Inscription: The front includes twelve concentric rings with the eight trigrams in the everted Fu Xi sequence, constellations, and twenty-four azimuthal segments marked with cyclical characters and trigrams in the Zheng Zhen or “correct needle” order. The reverse provides additional reference for geomantic calculations, and is signed by Fang Xiushui.

Fang Xiu-shui was a Qing-era maker of scientific instruments, specifically sundials and compasses, who worked in the Xiu Yi (Xiuning) county in Anhui Province.

Provenance: From the Karl Lunde Collection in New York, United States. Christie’s London, 6 April 2011, lot 59 (dated 19^th century), sold for GBP 1,375 or approx. EUR 2,700 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). A private collection in the United Kingdom, acquired from the above. Karl Lunde (1931-2009) was a distinguished art historian and professor emeritus at William Paterson University. He directed The Contemporaries gallery in New York, championing emerging modern artists. As a professor, he taught a broad spectrum of art history courses from Asian and prehistoric art to Neoclassicism. Upon retirement, he generously donated his extensive art collection to Columbia’s Avery Library and gifted artworks to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Newark Museum.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, traces of use, and manufacturing irregularities. Few fine age cracks, minor encrustations, and few small surface scratches.

Weight: 78 g
Dimensions: Diameter 10.5 cm

The I Ching (Yijing or Book of Changes) is one of the oldest Chinese classic texts, dating back over 3,000 years. It is a divination manual and a cosmological system used to understand change, harmony, and the balance of opposites (yin and yang). Central to it are the 64 hexagrams and eight trigrams (three-line symbols), each representing natural forces and situations (heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake). In the context of a luopan, these trigrams are arranged around the compass to align earthly orientation with cosmic principles, guiding decisions in feng shui practice.

A geomancer’s compass (luopan) like the present lot, traditionally used in feng shui practice to determine spatial alignment and auspicious orientation, is the essential tool for practitioners, embodying centuries of cosmological, astronomical, and geomantic knowledge. Unlike a simple compass, the luopan integrates a magnetic needle with multiple concentric rings of inscriptions, including references to the I Ching, the Five Elements, the 28 lunar mansions, and the system of heavenly stems and earthly branches. By aligning these registers with the cardinal directions, the practitioner could interpret the invisible forces of qi (energy flow) that govern harmony between humans and their environment. The use of the luopan extended from the planning of houses, gardens, and palaces to the placement of ancestral tombs, emphasizing its profound role in both daily life and statecraft.

Literature comparison:
Compare a near-identical wood luopan by the same maker, dated circa 1850, in the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, identification NAV0448. Compare a closely related wood luopan by the same maker, dated to the Qing dynasty, in the British Museum, registration number 1878,1101.373.