Yang claimed that his family had moved south from the state of Jin during its civil infighting in the 6th century BCE.

[1] As a youth Yang was an admirer and imitator of his elder Shu compatriot Sima Xiangru and the "grand fu" style of the early Han period.

Yang's other works include the Taixuanjing, a divination text based on the I Ching, "Justification Against Ridicule" (解嘲; Jiě cháo), one of the best known examples of the "fu of frustration" subgenre, and the Fangyan, a dictionary documenting regional vocabulary from throughout China at the time.

The Book of Han devotes a full two-part chapter to both Yang and Sima, an honor surpassing that of even the most famous generals and ministers.

He was a close associate of the official and philosopher Huan Tan (d. 28 CE), an Old Texts realist who may have heavily influenced the works of Wang Chong (27–c.