According to tradition Cang Jie and Ju Song were the inventors of writing. Cang Jie is believed to have had the idea when he saw birds' footprints in the sand. Ju Song, the emperor's reporter, is supposed to have helped to develop the script. Today these two are worshipped as 'patron saints' of written characters. Votive tablets dedicated to Cang Jie and Ju Song stand in temples, where pieces of paper with writing are ritually burned at set times. The written signs are themselves sacred, and therefore may not be simply thrown away.