靖国 (Yasukuni)

[Altair]

What does 靖国 (jing4 guo2) imply to a Chinese when he or she reads 靖国神社 (jing4 guo2 shen2 she4) (Yasukuni Shrine)?

My dictionary translates 靖 as "pacify," which tends to imply an adversary. Is it also relatively clear which 国 is being referred to? Is/are the 国 being "pacified" or "pacifying" others?

[流]

I think 国 means "Japan." According to an online dictionary:

靖国 can be read せいこく(first time I've ever heard of it not being "yasukuni"), and means pacifying the nation (of Japan.)

Why the nation? Well, guess the idea is that it is the greaf of the people of Japan, which translates into the grief of the nation; Yasukuni aids the grief, pacifying the nation.

(Don't shoot the messenger! I am 100% against Yasukuni Jinja, and it is like a slap in the face to the world when Koizumi goes there.)

~~

That did not really help; you were asking for a Chinese point of view, sorry...

[Altair]

I think I see now. It sounds like 靖 means to "assuage." In that case, 靖国神社 would mean "the Shrine that assuages (the grief of) the nation." It seems that "pacify" is quite a misleading interpretation of 靖 that dictionaries give. "Pacify" equates to "surpressing rebelliousness" or "stopping someone from waging war." I was curious if the meaning for Chinese was unambiguously a neutral or positive one.

[in_lab]

I can add one data point. When I first saw the name of the shrine in Chinese, I asked someone what the character 靖 meant. My friend didn't know. So some people read it more as a proper name than a name having meaning.