Scholars in Han Dynasty were profoundly shaped in their writing and compiling practice by shifa (师法transmission of tradition between teacher and student) and jiafa (家法transmission of family tradition) in the study of Confucian classics, and Confucius' transmitting/innovating (述作) dichotomy. Although Yang Xiong (扬雄) did not break away from the mainstream transmitting/innovating concept of writing at that time, he was honest about the “innovating” part in his writing and compiling practice, thus showing a new cognitive attitude in literature creation. Yang Xiong's imitation is mainly affected by the concept of “transmitting,” and the focus of his “transmitting” lies in the classic text form. However, Yang Xiong did not accept the classic text form out of simple imitation, but hoped to better present his ideas and thoughts with the help of the cultural spirit contained in the classic text form. The real purpose of Yang Xiong's compilation of Fayan(《法言》), which imitates The Analects of Confucius, is to trace the footprints of the original Confucianism, and to grasp and explain the real way to becoming a sage by zongjing (宗经honouring the Classics) and zhengsheng (征圣evidence from the Sage). In fact, it is through the compilation of Fayan, he wanted to construct a real “Confucian orthodoxy” and thus realize his own desire of practicing in the king's service. Fayan imitates the classic form of The Analects of Confucius. Although the trace of imitation in style is very obvious, there are also big differences. The title of Fayan shows that Yang Xiong intends to distance the two, which shows that Fayan is not a pure imitation of The Analects of Confucius, but has its own traits.