Heir of the Yuan clan of Runan, four generations of senior ministers. Master of four provinces north of the Yellow River — until Guandu.
I will hold the north of the Yellow River, keep the Rong and Di of Dai, and turn south to contend for the empire — that should see it through.Yuan Shao to Cao Cao before the war; Sanguozhi, Wei shu 1, Pei Songzhi commentary quoting the Fu Zi
Appears in
Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 1Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 2Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 7Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 12Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 13Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 14Three Kingdoms 2 · panel 16
Relations
- Cao Cao rivals — Friends in their youth at Luoyang; then the two strongest men in the north, and room for only one.
Myth vs record
The story you may know
A vacillating aristocrat who lost because he could never make up his mind — the novel's foil for Cao Cao's decisiveness.
What the sources say
The sources show a magnate whose four provinces made him the favourite to win. At Guandu he refused Xu You's plan to strike Xu and overruled Zhang He's warning about Wuchao: two recorded decisions, not a temperament. He died in 202 still holding his provinces; it was his sons' feud that finished the house of Yuan.