Hou (title)

{{Short description|Ancient Chinese ruler}} {{Royal and noble ranks of East Asia}} {{For|another title written in Chinese character "Hóu" ({{zh|c=侯|p=Hóu}})|Marquess#Analogous non-Western titles}} '''Hou''' ({{zh|c=后|p=Hòu}}) was a title for an ancient Chinese ruler, equivalent to King/Queen or Emperor/Empress.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Baocheng |first=Xie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmRZDwAAQBAJ |title=Brief History of the Official System in China |date=2013-03-01 |publisher=Paths International Ltd |isbn=978-1-84464-153-6 |pages=16 |language=en}}</ref>

The Chinese character ''Hou'' (后) is an ideogrammic compounds; in oracle bone script, it is written the same as ''Si'' (司, means "to rule") as the combination of mouth (口) and hand (手). Hou usually refers to female rulers in oracle bone script. In the Xia dynasty, the title for Kings of Xia was ''Hou''; for example, the term ''Xia Hou Shi'' ({{Zh|c=夏后|labels=no}}) means King of Xia. Kings of Shang and Zhou dynasties only used the term ''Hou'' to refer to the kings posthumously.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of ''Hou'', they had their own title, ''Wang'', and ''Hou'' turned to refer to the Queen, ''the'' wife of the King.

== References == {{Reflist}} Category:Ancient China Category:Positions of authority Category:Political history of China Category:Chinese royal titles