British scholar Joseph Needham wrote in an article published in the journal Nature in March 1956: "... the examination of certain medieval Chinese texts ... has now permitted us to establish the existence of a long tradition of astronomical clock-making in China between the seventh and fourteenth centuries."
英國李約瑟也在一九五六年三月「自然」雜誌上發表的文章中說：「在七世紀到十四世紀間，中國有製造天文鐘的悠久傳統。」