As the preceding chapters have shown, textual evidence concerning Kongzhai before the late 17th century is scant and scattered, while considerable documentation survives from the early Qing dynasty to the early Republican era. Even in these more recent accounts, however, inconsistent standards and ambiguous terminology create uncertainty. Writers often characterize new construction as repair or restoration, particularly when reusing the name of a building that existed in the past and not always in exactly the same spot. Guidelines in local gazetteers sometimes state that defunct sites were recorded in anticipation of their eventual revival, but the current status is not always clear. Fortunately, pictures offer another type of evidence for studying the physical and conceptual construction of Kongzhai.