“Jade in the mountain moistens the plants; pearls growing in the deep keep the banks from drying” comes from the “Encouragement of Learning” chapter of Xunzi. Jade is hidden within the mountain, yet the vegetation appears nourished; pearls form in deep water, and the banks do not dry out.
The preceding line says that no sound is too slight to be heard and no conduct too hidden to become visible. The passage then asks how goodness could become known without being accumulated. Using an ancient view of nature, the sentence argues that accumulated conduct will eventually leave outward traces.
We should not treat the claimed relation between jade and vegetation as modern scientific causation. A restrained contemporary reading is that sustained practice alters observable conditions around it: reputation and habit often show through details. Yet a good outcome does not prove that a virtuous person caused it. A metaphor is not evidence for judging someone.
https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/荀子/勸學篇
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