 His father was Yang Jin, and his mother was Yang Jin's wife Lady Yuan, who came from a noble lineage herself, being the granddaughter of the famed official Yuan He.In his youth, he studied the histories, the "Shi Jing", and the "I Ching", but particularly favored the "Zuo Zhuan" version of the "Spring and Autumn Annals".In 526, during the reign of Emperor Xiaoming, Northern Wei was suffering greatly from agrarian rebellions, and Yang Jing was commissioned with an army as the governor of Ding Province, roughly modern Baoding, Hebei).