盛唐時代，顧愷之、吳道子〈維摩詰圖〉最為流行，人物動作、表情已成固定範式，構圖多有神界特點，詩家多以朝聖心理詮釋圖像。中唐之後，以白居易為代表，詩人好以維摩詰自況，在詩中好將自己生活「維摩詰化」，自敘詩與寫真圖多以〈維摩詰圖〉中人物神態與場景為樣本，形成了維摩詰化的香山居士形象。宋人多受這一藝術思維影響，接受並推演白居易形象中的維摩詰因素，在水墨畫與題贊詩中將維摩詰藝術形象進一步世俗化與本土化，使得維摩詰形象宗教性、異域性特點漸少，並與香山居士形象合成。這也是東亞文明中一個共同的文化現象，維摩詰形象的本土化在日本、朝鮮詩畫中也有所體現。特別是日本，由於保存早期維摩詰水墨畫與題贊詩較多，可清晰展示這一過程。

During the High Tang period, Vimalakirti-themed paintings by Gu Kaizhi and Wu Daozi were the most popular. Patterns of the figure’s movements and facial expressions had become stabilized by then, and layouts of these paintings often represented features of the divine world. Poets often interpreted such images of Vimalakirti with the reverence for a sage. Since the mid-Tang, exemplified by Bai Juyi, poets liked to compare themselves to Vimalakirti and transform their lives in his image through their poetic composition. Self-presentations in poems and portraits often patterned themselves on scenes or the figure’s behavior in Vimalakirti-themed paintings. In this way, Bai’s image as a Vimalakirti type hermit of Xiangshan took form. People of the Song Dynasty were often influenced by this artistic approach. Accepting and developing the Vimalakirti elements in Bai Juyi’s image, they further secularized and Sinicized Vimalakirti’s artistic image in their ink-wash paintings and encomium poems, reduced its religious and exotic features, and had it combined with the image of the Hermit of Xiangshan. This cultural phenomenon was also shared by other East Asian civilizations. Localization of Vimalakirti’s image can also be observed in poetry and paintings of Japan and Korea. This is especially the situation in Japan: since there were relatively more Vimalakirti-themed ink-wash paintings and encomium poems surviving from early period, the localization process can be clearly traced.