Jin Xin I · Passage 06 / 46 · 孟子 7A.6

Mencius 7A.6: a person cannot be without shame

Shame as a moral threshold: what is frightening is not error alone, but the loss of the ability to feel ashamed at having become shameless.

孟子曰：「人不可以無恥。無恥之恥，無恥矣。」

mèng zǐ yuē：「rén bù kě yǐ wú chǐ。 wú chǐ zhī chǐ， wú chǐ yǐ。」

Mencius said, 'A man may not be without shame. When one is ashamed of having been without shame, he will afterwards not have occasion to be ashamed.'

Priority note

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Central question

Why does Mencius say that a person cannot be without shame?

Direct answer

Because shame is not decoration but the last alarm by which a person can still correct himself. Once even shamelessness no longer feels shameful, the inner brake has failed and moral recovery becomes much harder.

First principle

Correction does not require never going wrong. It requires preserving an inner sensitivity to wrongness and a refusal to become at ease within it.

Why it matters

This passage serves searches around shame, moral repair, and Mencius on conscience. It is one of the sharpest short expressions of the heart of shame and dislike in the four beginnings.

What this passage is doing

This is passage 6 of 46 in Jin Xin I. The cleanest entry point is "A man may not be without shame". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about exhausting the heart, sincerity, and preserving the original heart and can be read alongside Human nature.

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