 When the Ming founder Hongwu came upon the mechanical devices housed in the Yuan dynasty 's palace at Khanbaliq — such as fountains with balls dancing on their jets , self @-@ operating tiger automata , dragon @-@ headed devices that spouted mists of perfume , and mechanical clocks in the tradition of Yi Xing ( 683 – 727 ) and Su Song ( 1020 – 101 ) — he associated all of them with the decadence of Mongol rule and had them destroyed . This was described in full length by the Divisional Director of the Ministry of Works , Xiao Xun , who also carefully preserved details on the architecture and layout of the Yuan dynasty palace . Later , European Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault would briefly mention indigenous Chinese clockworks that featured drive wheels . However , both Ricci and Trigault were quick to point out that 16th @-@ century European clockworks were far more advanced than the common time keeping devices in China , which they listed as water clocks , incense clocks , and " other instruments ... with wheels rotated by sand as if by water " ( Chinese : 沙漏 ) . Chinese records — namely the Yuan Shi ( Chinese : 元史 ) — describe the ' five @-@ wheeled sand clock ' , a mechanism pioneered by Zhan Xiyuan ( fl . 1360 – 80 ) which featured the scoop wheel of Su Song 's earlier astronomical clock and a stationary dial face over which a pointer circulated , similar to European models of the time . This sand @-@ driven wheel clock was improved upon by Zhou Shuxue ( fl . 1530 – 58 ) who added a fourth large gear wheel , changed gear ratios , and widened the orifice for collecting sand grains since he criticized the earlier model for clogging up too often . 
