Yuan Shang (simplified: 袁尚, traditional: 袁尚, pinyin: Yuán Shàng) was Yuan Shao’s youngest son. Yuan Shao favoured him and left him in charge at Ye when he died in 202. Yuan Tan, the eldest, had been sent to Qing Province and contested the succession; the two brothers fought each other whilst Cao Cao advanced. Cao Cao took Ye in 204 and defeated Yuan Shang in the field. Yuan Shang fled north to join his brother Yuan Xi and the Wuhuan chieftain Tadun. In 207 Cao Cao defeated the Wuhuan at the Battle of White Wolf Mountain; Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi fled to Liaodong. The warlord Gongsun Kang (公孫康) killed them and sent their heads to Cao Cao to avoid invasion.
Legacy
Yuan Shang’s succession to the Yuan territories was undermined by the feud with Yuan Tan and by Cao Cao’s military pressure. His flight to the Wuhuan and death in Liaodong marked the end of the Yuan clan as a power in the north.