The ancient Chinese diviner's instrument known as a shih was an adjustable cosmic model. A similar object, the ‘lodge dial’, was probably a simple analogue computer for use in calendrical astronomy. Such instruments were forerunners of the armiliary sphere in China. It is possible that the phrase hsüan chi yu heng in the 5th/4th century B.C. Yao tien is a reference to some instrument related to the shih.