Chinese surname · rank 443
后
后 is read as hòu.
hòu
Simplified 后 · Traditional 後
ruler or sovereign; empress or queen; in simplified Chinese, also used for traditional meanings such as behind, later, after, descendants
Earth
Time: Spring and Autumn tradition, 770-476 BCE
Place: Lu-state lineage around Hou / Houji traditions and Qi royal-consort surname lore; exact site remains cautious.
Origin note
The surname sample should be handled with care because simplified also writes traditional in ordinary text. For the surname , cited surname tradition links with and . One line derives it from Lu-state lineage around / traditions; another later tradition says a Qi royal-consort story produced the surname. These are recorded surname traditions, not a single proven genealogy.
Historical figures
后羿
ancient Chinese myth · archer in the Hou Yi shooting-the-suns legend
A mythic archer associated with the story of ten suns scorching the earth. In the common version, Hou Yi shoots down nine suns and leaves one, restoring conditions for human life and agriculture.
后稷
legendary antiquity · culture hero of agriculture and Zhou ancestral figure
Also known as Qi, Hou Ji is remembered in early tradition as a teacher of grain cultivation, a spirit of millet and agriculture, and an ancestral figure of the Zhou people.