Fa yan

The Fa yan (Chinese: 法言), or "Exemplary Sayings", is an ancient Chinese text by the Han dynasty writer and poet Yang Xiong comprising a collection of dialogues and aphorisms in which Yang gives responses to a wide variety of questions relating to philosophy, politics, literature, ethics, and scholarship. Completed around AD 9, the Fa yan was meant to counter the ideas of the "syncretic" philosophical school, which Yang believed was contrary to the orthodox teachings of Confucianism and the ancient Chinese sages, and is deliberately modeled on the Analects of Confucius (Lunyu 論語).

The text of the Fa yan is divided into 13 chapters, and is presented in the form of dialogues between Yang and an anonymous interlocutor who asks him questions, to which Yang responds with terse, authoritative pronouncements—following Confucius' style in the Analects—that rely more on wit and puns than on logical exposition.