DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
若要人不知,除非己莫為
简 若要人不知,除非己莫为 · 繁 若要人不知,除非己莫為Mandarin · pinyin ruò yào rén bù zhī , chú fēi jǐ mò wéi
Meanings
- If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it (idiom). fig. If you do something bad, people will inevitably hear about it.
Characters in this entry
- 若
- ruò · if, supposing, assuming; similar
- 要
- yào · necessary, essential; necessity
- 人
- rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
- 不
- bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
- 知
- zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
- 除
- chú · eliminate, remove, except
- 非
- fēi · not, negative, non-; oppose; Kangxi radical 175
- 己
- jǐ · self, oneself; personal, private; 6th heavenly stem
- 莫
- mò · do not, is not, can not; negative
- 為
- Look up this written character
- 为
- wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be
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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Read this spelling in Classical texts
Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.
若要人不知,除非己莫為 · find source passages ↗ · 若要人不知,除非己莫为 · find source passages ↗