后

Stroke order

后 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 竹一口 (HMR), four-corner 7226₁, composition ⿸𠂋口)

• 𰂀, 垢, 𰃙, 𣢨, 姤, 䞧, 𥅠, 𭸫,㖃, 𫩲, 詬(诟), 㧨, 㤧, 骺, 銗, 𬭅, 㻈, 洉, 𪲉, 茩, 𫀱, 逅, 𬖙, 垕, 垢, 𫝴, 𧮶, 缿, 劶, 郈, 㸸, 𧲿, 𪊪, 𧊛, 𩗇, 鮜(鲘), 𪁆, 𬷎, 𧙺

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 176, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3298
• Dae Jaweon: page 393, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 580, character 1
• Unihan data for U+540E

 

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 后 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• Hou (title) (English)

 

Wikipedia has an article on:

• 后姓

Historical forms of the character 后
Shang	Spring and Autumn	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Oracle bone inscriptions often wrote 后 as 毓, depicting a woman giving birth. Wang Guowei posits the meaning extended from childbirth to succession, then to empress. In the modern form, the birthing figure would be 𠂆 and the child figure 𠮛.^[1]

According to Kōjien^{[zh 1]} and 学研漢和大字典, ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 人 (“person (variant form)”) + 口 (“hole”) — a depiction of a person's (人) anus, with the additional meaning of “behind”, “rear”, as well as coming to mean “emperor/empress”, who would live in a palace “behind” worldly troubles.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s-gaw (“head”). Cognate with Tibetan གོ (go, “head; headman”), མགོ (mgo, “head, top, beginning”).

后

1. ^† king; ruler; emperor

   后稷  ―  Hòujì  ―  Hou Ji, (literally, “Lord of Millet”) - legendary Chinese cultural hero and progenitor of the Zhou dynasty

2. ^⁜ queen; empress

   王后  ―  wánghòu  ―  queen

3. (chess) queen
4. a surname

• The surname 后 (hòu) is not to be confused with the surname 後／后 (hòu).

Chess pieces in Mandarin · 國際象棋棋子／国际象棋棋子 (guójì xiàngqí qízǐ) (layout · text)
王 (wáng), 國王／国王 (guówáng)	后 (hòu), 皇后 (huánghòu)	車／车 (jū), 城堡 (chéngbǎo)	象 (xiàng), 主教 (zhǔjiào)	馬／马 (mǎ), 騎士／骑士 (qíshì)	兵 (bīng)

In the traditional-Chinese literate context, the use of 后 (hòu) as a variant of 後 is mostly confined to the occurrences in a few well-known historical texts such as the Great Learning (《大學》).

(Sixth grade kyōiku kanji)

• Go-on: ぐ (gu)
• Kan-on: こう (kō, Jōyō)^{←こう (kou, historical)}
• Kan’yō-on: ご (go)、ごう (gō)
• Kun: きさき (kisaki, 后)、きさい (kisai, 后)

• 皇(こう)后(ごう) (kōgō)
• 大后(コニオルク) (konioruku)

From Middle Chinese 后 (MC huwX|huwH).

后(こう) • (kō) 

1. monarch, ruler, sovereign
2. empress, queen, or other female monarch

Derivation unknown.

Possibly originally a contraction of 君幸 (kimi saki, literally “lordly good fortune”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

• (Tokyo) きさき [kìsáꜜkì] (Nakadaka – [2])^[2]
• (Tokyo) きさき [kìsákí] (Heiban – [0])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [kʲisa̠kʲi]

后(きさき) • (kisaki) 

1. an empress

   Synonym: 皇后 (kōgō)

2. any other wife of a male aristocrat, such as a queen

/kisaki/ → /kisaĩ/ → /kisai/

Sound shift from kisaki above.

Appears to be less common in isolation than the kisaki reading above.^[3][2]

后(きさい) • (kisai) 

1. (uncommon, archaic) Same as きさき (kisaki) above
   • c. 1001–1014, Murasaki Shikibu, Genji Monogatari (Agemaki)

     「もし、世(よ)の中(なか)移(うつ)りて、帝(みかど)・后(きさい)の、思(おぼ)しおきつるままにも、おはしまさば...」

     “Moshi, yononaka utsurite, mikado, kisai no, oboshi-okitsuru mama ni mo, owashimasaba...”

     (please add an English translation of this example)

• 后(きさい)の宮(みや) (kisai no miya)
• 后(きさい)腹(ばら) (kisaibara)
• 大(おお)后(きさい) (ōkisai)

From Middle Chinese 后 (MC huwH).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ɸʷu]
• Phonetic hangul: [후]

 

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

后

Wikisource

后 (eumhun 임금 후 (imgeum hu))

1. hanja form^? of 후 (“ruler; monarch”)
2. (suffix) hanja form^? of 후 (“queen; empress”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [1]

后: Hán Nôm readings: hậu

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.