After the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, Yang became a researcher and served as the main assistant and disciple of Xu Bangda in the 1970s and 1980s.
[1][2] Yang served as Vice Director of the Palace Museum from September 1987 to December 2000, and organized many exhibitions and research projects.
He subsequently oversaw the publication of the English edition of the series, which was published in 10 volumes in 2015 by the Commercial Press of Hong Kong.
[1] Yang wrote many other books, including biographies of Xiang Shengmo, Cheng Zhengkui, and the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.
He co-authored Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (Yale University Press, 2002) with Richard Barnhart, Nie Chongzheng, James Cahill, Lang Shaojun, and Wu Hung.