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Yang Xiong (author)

Contents

1 Life and career

2 Philosophy

3 References
4 External links

Life and career


Like a number of the other great writers of the Han dynasty, Yang
was from Shu (modern Sichuan province), specifically the area of Pi
郫 (modern Pi County, Sichuan). 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. His ability and success in fu composition earned
him a summons to the imperial capital at Chang'an to serve as an
"Expectant Official", responsible for composing poems and fu for the
emperor.[2]

Yang's position required him to praise the virtue and glory of


Emperor Cheng of Han and the grandeur of imperial outings, but he
was disturbed by the wasteful extravagance of the imperial court.[2]
Yang attempted to return the fu genre to a focus of "suasive
admonition" (fèng 諷), which he believed was the original purpose of
the earliest fu-type writings of Qu Yuan, but his couched
admonitions against extravagance went unnoticed and unheeded by
Emperor Cheng.

Yang's most famous work, Exemplary Sayings (Fa yan 法言) is a


philosophical work modeled on the Analects of Confucius (Lunyu), in
which Yang criticizes fu writers for focusing on ornate, esoteric
language while ignoring more important issues of morality. Yang's
other works include Great Mystery (Tai xuan 太玄), a divination text
based on the Classic of Changes (Yijing), "Justification Against
Ridicule" (Jie chao 解嘲), one of the best known of the "fu of
frustration" category of fu, and Fangyan, a collection of regional
dialectal terms from the various parts of China in his era.

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"

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