稷

1. Botanical: Specifically broomcorn millet (//Panicum miliaceum//).

2. Ritual/Religious: The deity of millet, or the altar dedicated to that deity.

3. Political/State: Encountered most frequently in the compound //sheji// (社稷), where it functions as a metonym for the State, the Dynasty, or national sovereignty.

Primarily a noun. It may function as a modifier (e.g., 稷神, "god of millet") and typically does not carry verbal weight.

Translation depends on register: literal agricultural descriptions require "millet," while discussions of regime legitimacy or national fate suggest "the state" or "the altars of the land." The sense of "minister of agriculture" found in some lexicons is a downstream application of the grain's ritual importance to the survival of the state.