Wake Forest University

Traditional:

通鑑說，有人適外國，夜熟一羊胛而天明。此是地之角尖 處。日入地下，而此處無所遮蔽，故常光明；及從東出而 為曉，其所經遮蔽處亦不多耳。
義剛。

Simplified:

通鉴说，有人适外国，夜熟一羊胛而天明。此是地之角尖 处。日入地下，而此处无所遮蔽，故常光明；及从东出而 为晓，其所经遮蔽处亦不多耳。
义刚。

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Translation:

The [Zi-zhi] Tong-jian says that people went out of the country to a place where the night ended in the length of time it takes to cook a piece of mutton. This is the tip of the horn of the earth. The sun enters beneath the earth, yet this place gets no shade. Therefore it is constantly bright. And with regard to those [northern] places where [the sun] comes out from the east and gives light, the area from which they receive shade is not at all great.

Commentary:

Except that he has turned the polar region into a point or a "horn", and perhaps sees the sun's apparent diameter as being so great that at least the edges of it shed light upon these northern lands. In space, where there is no atmosphere to create diffuse light, the side of any opaque object facing away from the sun will receive no light from the sun unless it is reflected from the moon or some other more nearby object. But Zhu Xi knows only the way that light works in his environment, where there is almost never a point source of light that is not diffused by things in the environment.

It still is not clear whether Zhu Xi envisions a flat earth with a narrow triangular shape at the north end, or a sphere that has been distorted into a conical solid at the north end.

-- PEM