The treatment of thunder and lightning in traditional Chinese writings demonstrates that many modern intellectuals have exaggerated the Neo-Confucian tendencies toward rational explanations and careful classification. First of all, the Chinese literati accepted as common sense the notion that thunder rather than lightning was the destructive force in thunderstorms. Moreover, even as they continued to deny that Heaven was the willful author behind thunder's killing people, the very persistence of their denials demonstrates the belief the scholars were trying to eradicate. Legends the scholars recorded demonstrate the influence of magical thinking on popular attitudes. These include references to interpretations of presumed inscriptions on thunder's victims (the Lichtenberg figure) as indications of culpability. This contrasts with the phenomenon of the concealed dragon, which is an attempt to explain why thunder strikes a particular inanimate object. Finally, some explain thunder's killing apparently innocent people in terms of their previous incarnations' guilt; this evolves into a belief in innate evil.