Wind chime Japanese glass wind bells known as "fūrin" () have been produced since the Edo period, and those at Mizusawa Station are one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan. Wind chimes are thought to be good luck in parts of Asia and are used in Feng Shui. Wind chimes started to become modernized around 1100 B.C. after the Chinese began to cast bells. A bell without a clapper, called a "yong-zhong", was crafted by skilled metal artisans and primarily used in religious ceremonies. Afterwards, the Chinese created the "feng-ling", which is similar to today's modern wind bell. Feng-lings were hung from
Chinese as a foreign language late 16th century. Among the first were the Italian Jesuits, Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci. They mastered the language without the aid of any grammar books or dictionaries, and are often viewed as the first Western sinologists. Ruggeiri set up a school in Macau, which was the first for teaching foreigners Chinese and translated part of the "Great Learning" into Latin. This was the first translation of a Confucian classic into any European language. He also wrote a religious tract in Chinese, the first Chinese book written by a Westerner. Matteo Ricci brought Western sciences to China, and became a