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Contents
2 Philosophy
3 References
4 External links
Together with Sima Xiangru, Yang was one of the most famous and
illustrious men of the entire Han dynasty. 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.[3]
Philosophy
He did not believe human nature was inherently good as Mencius (fl.
4th century BCE) had written, nor inherently bad as Xunzi (c. 300–230
BCE) had written, but came into existence as a mixture of both. 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. 100 CE). Yang is also known for his protest
against the verbosity of the fu. He was hailed by Huan Tan as the
"Confucius from the western parts"