According to Wang Chien-wang, who designs the Earth Lords seen in TV costume dramas and who wrote his Master's thesis on Taiwan's tutelary god beliefs and iconography, the representation of the god as an imperial official is connected to the widely used religious text The Scripture of the True Deity Fude.
關於土地公那老員外的定裝照，曾以台灣土地神信仰及造像藝術為碩士論文主題的王健旺、也是電視連續劇土地公造型的設計者表示，台灣土地公的老員外造型，與廣為流傳的善書《福德正神金經》最相近。