Qin Hui had come to read Su Xie an edict from the Emperor, commanding him to build a "Yuanyou armillary sphere and celestial globe" for the court. This was a precision apparatus used for astronomical observation and for timekeeping, which had been built by Su Xie's father Su Song in 1088, the third year of the Yuanyou period of the reign of the Northern Song emperor Zhezong.
這是座精密的天文觀測報時儀器，又叫「水運儀象台」，北宋元祐三年，由其當時官拜刑部尚書、精通律曆的父親蘇頌，帶領一批曉算數、有巧思的官員工匠製作完成的。