Li Lou I · Passage 15 / 28 · 孟子 4A.15
Mencius 4A.15: the eyes cannot hide what is wrong within
Mencius says that the eyes reveal what elaborate speech cannot conceal. When the chest is inwardly right, the gaze is clear; when it is not.
孟子曰：「存乎人者，莫良於眸子，眸子不能掩其惡。胸中正，則眸子瞭焉；胸中不正，則眸子眊焉。聽其言也，觀其眸子，人焉廋哉？」
Mencius said, 'Of all the parts of a man's body there is none more excellent than the pupil of the eye. The pupil cannot be used to hide a man's wickedness. If within the breast all be correct, the pupil is bright. If within the breast all be not correct, the pupil is dull. Listen to a man's words and look at the pupil of his eye. How can a man conceal his character?'
Priority note
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Central question
Why does Mencius say that the eyes cannot hide a person's evil?
Direct answer
Because he is arguing that deep moral condition eventually leaks through the whole bearing of a person. Words can be designed and posture can be staged, but the inner state often betrays itself first through the eyes.
First principle
A person's inner structure cannot be indefinitely sealed behind performance. What is central will eventually disclose itself in detail.
Why it matters
This passage fits searches around reading character, the eyes in Mencius, and how inner moral condition becomes visible.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 15 of 28 in Li Lou I. The cleanest entry point is "Of all the parts of a man's body…". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about self-examination, disorder, and keeping the way and can be read alongside Human nature.
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Li Lou I often approaches disorder through self-examination and the standards for keeping the way.
Related principles
Citation note
Do not turn the passage into shallow physiognomy. Mencius is not offering fortune-telling technique, but describing how inward rightness or crookedness becomes outwardly legible.