Hou () was a title for an ancient Chinese ruler, equivalent to King/Queen or Emperor/Empress. The

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

''Hou'' (后) is an ideogrammic compounds; in

oracle bone script Oracle bone script is the oldest attested form of written Chinese, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Inscriptions were made by carving characters into oracle bones, usually either the shoulder bones of oxen or the plastrons of turtl ...

, 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 Xia dynasty (; ) is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, it was established by the legendary figure Yu the Great, after Emperor Shun, Shun, the last of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Fiv ...

, the title for Kings of Xia was ''Hou''; for example, the term ''Xia Hou Shi'' () means King of Xia. Kings of Shang and Zhou dynasties only used the term ''Hou'' to refer to the kings posthumously. Instead of ''Hou'', they had their own title, ''Wang'', and ''Hou'' turned to refer to the Queen, ''the'' wife of the King.

References

{{Reflist Ancient China Positions of authority Political history of China Chinese royal titles