Ouyang Xuan's poems, such as Banquet in the North Province and Sleeping in front of the Temple, all describe his official life. However, the poems in "Ode to the Imperial Capital", such as "I remember the beauty of Jiangnan in spring sleep, and the small building leans on the pillow to listen to the village", reflect his yearning for the quiet life in the countryside.
Ouyang Xuan has a lot of prose. Among them, inscriptions, epitaphs and other works are very plain and exaggerated as much as possible. Some prefaces and postscripts written for other people's poems comment on academic schools, changes in writing style and creative characteristics, which are concise and to the point. For example, in the preface to Nan Weng's Collected Works, he expressed dissatisfaction with the creation of his hometown brothers at that time and was deeply influenced by Jiangxi School. He said: "European writing is so dangerous and vigorous, why not Xu Shu and Zong Yi Wu Liu Yigong (Ouyang Xiu)!" Ouyang Xuan's best essays are short stories, such as langxi, Qifeng, Fang Lin Ji and Yi Xu. Fang said that as long as a person is innocent and self-controlled, his reputation will naturally be far-reaching, just like Lin Lan, the fragrance will inevitably overflow. The article emphasizes the importance of personal cultivation. However, in the preface of Chess Manual, it is said that "there are algorithms to play chess, which is enough to guide wisdom", and playing chess is beneficial to intellectual education. These articles are fresh, concise and interesting.
The author of Guizhai Collection, originally 44 volumes, Song Lian said 24 volumes in the preface, and now there are 16 volumes.