靖 (jìng): to pacify; to suppress; to brin…

Meanings

1 to pacify; to suppress; to bring peace
2 peaceful; calm; tranquil
3 (proper noun) surname Jing

Characters

靖

jìng

to pacify; peaceful

Examples

经过多年战乱，新皇帝终于靖定了边疆。

Jīngguò duōnián zhànluàn, xīn huángdì zhōngyú jìng dìng le biānjiāng.

After years of war, the new emperor finally pacified the borderlands.

国家长久安靖，百姓安居乐业。

Guójiā chángjiǔ ānjìng, bǎixìng ānjūlèyè.

The country has long enjoyed peace; the people live and work in tranquillity.

靖刚是一位著名的日本棒球投手。

Jìng gāng shì yī wèi zhùmíng de Rìběn bàngqiú tóushǒu.

Tsuyoshi Jing is a famous Japanese baseball pitcher.

Tips

usage

jìng is a bound character — it does not stand alone in modern Mandarin. Two semantic clusters: (1) Pacification / suppression of unrest — 绥靖 (appease, pacify; also the loaded political term 'appeasement' as in 'Munich appeasement'), 靖乱 (suppress rebellion), 靖国 (pacify the nation). (2) Peaceful / tranquil — 安靖 (peace, stability). The historical 靖难之役 (Jingnan Campaign, 1399-1402) was the civil war in which the Yongle Emperor seized the Ming throne.

culture

靖 is a moderately common Chinese surname (Hundred Family Surnames). It is also a frequent character in personal names with the wish-meaning 'peaceful, settled' — e.g. the wuxia hero 郭靖 in Jin Yong's 《射雕英雄传》. In Japanese, the same character is read 'Yasushi' or 'Sei' and gives names like 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine).

Components

semantic

立 lì

to stand; upright

Left 立 — 'to stand'. Contributes the image of standing upright, composed and unmoving: a person standing peacefully, a country standing settled. The Shuowen definition glosses 靖 as 立竫 'to stand still', and this left element carries that 'standing' core.

phonetic

青 qīng

blue-green; supplying the sound

Right phonetic 青 — supplies the sound (qīng → jìng, a regular palatal shift). The same phonetic anchors a strong family: 静 (still), 清 (clear), 情 (feeling), 请 (please), 晴 (clear sky), 睛 (pupil of the eye). The 'still / quiet' flavour of 静 is essentially the same as the 'peaceful / settled' flavour of 靖.