As a quiet and studious young man, Yang Xiong came to admire and practice the fu form. When he was past age 40, he went to live in the imperial capital, Chang'an, where his reputation as a poet won him a position at court. In AD 9, when Wang Mang usurped the imperial throne and executed or imprisoned many prominent persons, Yang, who was about to be arrested and fearful that he could not clear himself, threw himself from the high window of a pavilion and was badly injured. The emperor, finding that Yang had no interest in politics, ordered that his case be dropped.

In later life Yang turned from poetry to philosophy, in which he was influenced by both Confucianism and Daoism. The doctrine for which he is remembered reflects the perennial Chinese interest in human nature, which Yang regarded as a mixture of good and evil; he avoided the extreme positions taken by the philosophers Mencius (original goodness) and Xunzi (Hsün-tzu) (original evil). His chief works in philosophy are the Fayan (“Model Sayings”) and the Taixuanjing (“Classic of the Supremely Profound Principle”), 15 essays that imitate the form of the Confucian classic Yijing (I-Ching; “Classic of Changes”).