Picked as a child prodigy at about ten, he was given a post at a court academy, but he spent most of his career in minor offices and died as magistrate of 盈川, so he is also called 杨盈川.
culture
His frontier poem 《从军行》 ends 宁为百夫长，胜作一书生, 'better a captain of a hundred men than a mere scholar'. When the four poets were ranked 王杨卢骆, he is said to have grumbled at coming after Wang.
