[1] Yang's ancestral home was located in Yunnan, Yiqing followed his father Jing to Yuezhou, since the latter moved to there in 1460.

After his mourning, he served as a drafter in the Grand Secretariat since 1476, then assistant surveillance commissioner of Shanxi some year later.

He was appointed as commissioner of education in Shaanxi, and had been conversant with the frontier affairs the eight-year term expired.

He was promoted to the minister of revenue in autumn of the year and gained the title of the junior protector of the heir apparent.

He blamed the anomalies emerged recently to the incompetent administration in 1516, which annoyed officials Qian Ning and Jiang Bin who were satirized.

Prior to enthroning, the Jiajing Emperor had admired Yang, who endorsed Zhang Cong's actions in the Great Rites Controversy.