"Straight, Square, Great: Without Practice, Nothing That Does Not Further — Why the Harder You Study, the Worse You Perform"

How do you find a study method that works for you?

This is probably one of the most headache-inducing questions from our school days.

Growing up, we’ve been fed so many "correct" study methods: work hard, be diligent, do tons of practice problems, wake up early and stay up late. But rarely does anyone tell us whether these methods actually suit *you*.

The result? Many people spend over a decade studying and still haven’t found a learning method that truly fits them.

Have you ever had this experience—

You copy whatever method someone swears by. If people say practice problems work, you buy stacks of worksheets to drill. If they say memorizing vocabulary helps, you cram 100 words a day. If they claim early mornings are the most productive, you set a 6 a.m. alarm and drag yourself out of bed.

And what happens?

You drill problems for ages but your grades don’t improve. You memorize words for hours and forget them the second you turn around. You do wake up early, but you’re groggy all morning and retain nothing.

Then you blame yourself, thinking you’re not trying hard enough, or that you’re just not smart.

But that’s not it at all.

You’re just using the wrong method. You’re following someone else’s method, not your own.

There’s a line from the Six in the Second Place of Kun / The Receptive: “直方大，不习无不利” (Zhi Fang Da, Bu Xi Wu Bu Li). It’s exactly about this: as long as you follow your own nature, you don’t have to force yourself to copy other people’s routines, and naturally nothing will go against you.

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What Does the Six in the Second Place of Kun / The Receptive Really Mean?

The Line Text for the Six in the Second Place of Kun / The Receptive reads: “直方大，不习无不利” (Zhi Fang Da, Bu Xi Wu Bu Li).

A lot of people misinterpret these eight characters.

Some say it means you can succeed without studying. That’s nonsense—there’s nothing in the world you can master without putting in the work.

Others claim it means people of upright, moral character don’t need to study to be fine. That’s a bit too mystical.

The Six in the Second Place is actually the purest line of the Kun hexagram. Why? Because it’s a Yin Line in a yin position, and it holds the central place—*in the central position and proper*, perfectly placed. It’s just like the earth: it is what it is. It doesn’t need to imitate the sky, nor does it need to imitate the mountains. It simply does what the earth is meant to do.

So the true meaning of “不习无不利” (Bu Xi Wu Bu Li) is: you don’t have to deliberately copy how others do things. If you follow your own nature, there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Xiang Commentary (Images) states: “The movement of the Six in the Second Place is straight and square. That ‘without practice there is nothing unfavorable’ is because the way of the earth is inherently bright and expansive.” The actions of this line are upright and proper. There’s no need to force imitation, because the natural law of the earth is open and aboveboard by its very nature.

Does the earth need to imitate anyone? No. It just stays there quietly, bearing all things and nurturing all things. That’s its power.

People are the same way.

Everyone has their own study rhythm, study style, and study habits. Instead of envying other people’s methods every day, you’re better off first figuring out what kind of person you are.

The three concepts of the Six in the Second Place of Kun—*Zhi* (straight), *Fang* (square), *Da* (great)—are three things you need to have before you can find your own method.

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Zhi (Straight): Stop Lying to Yourself—If You Don’t Know It, Admit It

First, let’s talk about *Zhi* (straight).

What is “straight”? Uprightness. Not moral uprightness, but honesty with yourself.

For many people, the biggest problem with studying isn’t lack of smarts—it’s self-deception.

Take memorizing vocabulary, for example. You run through a word list once, think all the words look familiar, and decide you know them. Then comes the test, and you can’t remember a single one.

Or doing practice problems: you look at the answer, go “Oh right, that’s how it works, I get it,” and move on. Next time you see the same problem, you still can’t solve it.

Or listening to lectures: the teacher is talking up front, you’re nodding along down below, thinking you understand. Then you try to do the homework after class and draw a total blank.

This is what it means to not be “straight.” You’re not honest with yourself. You mistake “having seen it before” for “having learned it,” and “having understood the explanation” for “being able to apply it.”

Why does this happen? Because admitting you don’t know something is uncomfortable. It makes you feel stupid, or slow.

But you can lie to yourself all you want—you can’t lie to the exam.

The “straight” of the Six in the Second Place of Kun is telling you this: first, be honest with yourself.

If you don’t know it, say you don’t know it. If you don’t understand, say you don’t understand. If you’re slow, admit you’re slow. There’s no shame in it.

On the flip side, the people who pretend they know everything just to save face end up hurting themselves in the end.

I know a woman who studied until midnight every day when she was preparing for graduate school entrance exams. She looked incredibly hardworking. But she had a habit: she loved doing “face-saving work.” What does that mean? She only worked on problems she already knew how to solve, because finishing them gave her a sense of achievement. As for problems she didn’t know? She just avoided them.

And the result? She failed the exam two years in a row.

In her third year, she had a realization and stopped doing face-saving work. Every day, she specifically picked out the problems she couldn’t do. She worked through every unfamiliar concept one by one. Master one, gain one—every win counted.

That year, she got in.

She said she used to think she was learning so much, but she was really just treading water. Real progress started the day she admitted what she didn’t know.

See? That’s the power of “straight.”

Being honest with yourself works better than any study method out there.

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Fang (Square): Have a System—Don’t Flit Around Aimlessly

Next, let’s talk about *Fang* (square).

What is “square”? Proper, structured, systematic.

A lot of people study like a headless chicken. Today they think their math is weak, so they cram math. Tomorrow they decide their English is lacking, so they switch to English. The day after, they hear someone else is memorizing politics, so they rush to do that too.

After all that studying, they’ve dabbled in every subject but mastered none.

This is what it means to not be “square.” No system, no rhythm, just flitting around from one thing to the next.

The “square” of the Six in the Second Place of Kun is telling you this: studying needs structure.

What counts as structure? It doesn’t mean you have to follow someone else’s schedule. It means you need your own rhythm.

For example, if your mind is clearest in the morning, schedule your hardest material for then. If you’re most productive at night, plan your important tasks for the evening.

Don’t pay attention to people who say “mornings are golden hours.” Someone else’s golden hour might be your garbage hour.

Also, studying needs priorities.

You can’t learn everything, and you can’t be good at everything. You have to figure out first: what do you absolutely need to know? What’s just good to be familiar with? What can you afford to skip?

Spending your time where it counts is more important than anything else.

I had a classmate who always got average grades. Then he realized something: he didn’t need to get top marks in every subject. He just needed to grab every point he could reasonably get, and that would be enough.

So he studied past exam papers thoroughly, and ranked the test points for each subject by importance. For the core concepts, he practiced them over and over until he could get them right with his eyes closed. For secondary points, he did his best to master them. For weird, off-topic trick questions? He just skipped them entirely.

With that one adjustment, his grades shot up immediately.

He said he used to think the more you study, the better. Later he found out the more *targeted* your study is, the better.

See? That’s what “square” means.

Have a system, have priorities, have a rhythm. It’s not about busywork—it’s about being productively busy.

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Da (Great): Broaden Your Perspective—Don’t Fixate on One Exam’s Results

Finally, let’s talk about *Da* (great).

What is “great”? Vast, broad-minded, having a big-picture perspective.

A lot of people get more and more anxious the more they study. Why? Because their perspective is too narrow.

Do badly on one exam, and you feel like the sky is falling. Can’t solve one problem, and you think you’re stupid. Someone scores a few points higher than you, and you panic.

If you fixate all your attention on these little things, of course you’ll be anxious.

The “great” of the Six in the Second Place of Kun is telling you this: open up your perspective.

You’re not learning this stuff for one exam, or one ranking. You’re learning it for yourself. You’re building a foundation for your own life.

The math you learn today might not be useful later. But the logical thinking skills you build from studying math will be useful your whole life. The English words you memorize today might be forgotten after the exam. But the window to the world that learning English opens will let you see a bigger universe.

Wen Laoshi often says: studying isn’t about beating other people—it’s about becoming the best version of yourself.

You’re doing this for *you*, not for a report card.

When your perspective broadens, a lot of things stop bothering you.

So you did badly on one exam? So what? Try again next time. Can’t solve one problem? So what? Once you learn it, you’ve gained something. Someone is better than you? So what? You study your way, they study theirs—everyone has their own path.

When your mindset is steady, your efficiency will naturally improve.

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How to Find a Study Method That Works for You

Once you have *Zhi*, *Fang*, and *Da* down, the next step is figuring out how to find your own method.

It’s actually not that complicated. You just need to do three things.

First thing: test it out.

Don’t just believe every method someone says is great. Try it for yourself.

Test one method for a week and see how it works. Test another for a week and compare. After trying enough of them, you’ll naturally know which one fits you.

It’s like buying shoes. It doesn’t matter if someone says they’re comfortable—you have to try them on yourself. No one knows better than you whether they fit.

Study methods are the same: there’s no “best” one, only the one that’s best for *you*.

Second thing: keep track.

While you’re studying, jot down a quick note: what did I learn today? How long did it take? How well did it go? Did I absorb it when I was in a good state, or did I force myself through it when I was burnt out?

After keeping track for a while, you’ll look back and see the pattern clearly.

Oh, turns out I’m most efficient at math in the morning. Oh, right, I get sleepy in the afternoon, so that’s a good time for mindless tasks. Oh, wow, I can’t study for more than two hours straight—I need to take a break in between.

These are your own data points, and they’re more useful than anything anyone else could tell you.

Third thing: stop hopping around.

Once you find a method that works for you, stick with it steadily. Don’t switch it up just because you hear someone praise a different method today, then switch again tomorrow for the same reason.

Hop around too much, and you’ll waste all your time switching methods instead of actually learning anything.

Pick one, and stick with it. Keep at it for a while, and the results will show naturally.

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A Few Final Words

After all this, the core message of the Six in the Second Place of Kun’s “不习无不利” (Bu Xi Wu Bu Li) is really just one thing—

Don’t copy other people. Learn to be yourself.

No matter how great someone else’s method is, it’s *theirs*. You have to find your own rhythm, your own way, your own path.

This sounds simple, but it’s actually pretty hard.

Why is it hard? Because you have to admit that you might be slower than others, that a certain method might just not work for you, that you might have to walk a different path.

Admitting that takes courage.

But once you do admit it, you’ll feel free.

You won’t have to compare yourself to others anymore, or feel anxious, or doubt yourself. You can just walk forward steadily, at your own pace, step by step.

It doesn’t matter if you walk slow. As long as you’re going in the right direction, you’ll get there eventually.

Times change, and methods get simpler and simpler. But one thing has never changed: the best method is the one that fits *you*.

Zhi, Fang, Da.

First, be someone who is honest with yourself. Then, be someone who has a system. Finally, be someone with a broad perspective.

Master these three things, and you won’t need to copy anyone else—you yourself will be your own best method.