Historians have tended to frame the history of Qufu and Queli as a sequence of state initiatives, or of contests among branches of the Kong clan and with the state. In travel accounts by late Ming literati, however, these efforts at self-promotion frequently met with indifference, skepticism, or derision. Visitors to Qufu showed more interest in the chance to encounter artifacts associated with Confucius and other figures from the classical era and the resulting sense of a personal connection with sagehood, often perceiving in the site a numinous power credited to geomantic or cosmological principles, the metaphysical effects of sagehood, and the actions of spirits. These various forces could all be accounted for within mainstream Neo-Confucian cosmology, but Ming travelers differed as to which prevailed at Qufu. The observations in this study suggest that the cultural history of Qufu during the Ming be broadened from its current focus on court-sponsored regulation and ritual to include narratives of spiritual and intellectual discovery by literati visiting individually and in voluntarily organized groups. More than state intervention and the maneuvering of local clans, these travelers may have played a leading role in defining the cultural importance of this Confucian sacred site in the literati society of the late Ming and after.

中文翻译：

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明末孔子故里游记中的宇宙、政治和个人

历史学家倾向于将曲阜和阙里的历史描述为一系列国家举措，或者是孔氏分支之间以及与国家之间的较量。然而，在晚明文人的游记中，这些自我推销的努力经常遭到冷漠、怀疑或嘲笑。曲阜的游客对有机会遇到与孔子和其他古典时代人物相关的文物以及由此产生的与圣人的个人联系感表现出更大的兴趣，通常在现场感受到一种归功于风水或宇宙学原理的神秘力量，即形而上学圣人的影响，以及精神的行动。这些不同的力量都可以在主流的新儒家宇宙学中得到解释，但在曲阜占主导地位的明朝旅行者却意见不一。本研究中的观察表明，明代曲阜的文化史应从目前侧重于宫廷规制和仪式的内容扩展到文人以个人和自愿组织的团体访问的精神和知识发现的叙述。除了国家干预和地方宗族的操纵之外，这些旅行者可能在确定这个儒家圣地在明末及之后的文人社会中的文化重要性方面发挥了主导作用。