邪修

What does 邪修 mean?

In Chinese fantasy and cultivation novels, a 邪修 is a cultivator who gains power through unorthodox, forbidden shortcuts instead of the slow righteous path. Online it now means tackling ordinary tasks in strange, low-effort ways that somehow work. You see 邪修做饭 (hack cooking, like making a cake in a rice cooker), 邪修学习 (hack studying) and 邪修减肥 (hack dieting), plus the slogan 万物皆可邪修, 'anything can be done the 邪修 way'. It is playful and admiring, not about anything actually harmful. English speakers would call it a life hack or 'cheat code' approach.

Where does 邪修 come from?

The word comes from online fantasy and cultivation fiction, where 邪修 use dark shortcuts to level up faster. In mid-2025 it became a hit on short-video platforms, with the Douyin hashtag #邪修做饭# reaching hundreds of millions of views, and it stayed popular into 2026.

How to use 邪修

• 用电饭煲做蛋糕，这就是邪修做饭。
  Yòng diànfànbāo zuò dàngāo, zhè jiù shì xiéxiū zuò fàn.
  Baking a cake in a rice cooker: that's hack-mode cooking.
• 万物皆可邪修，背单词也不例外。
  Wànwù jiē kě xiéxiū, bèi dāncí yě bú lìwài.
  Anything can be hacked, and memorising vocabulary is no exception.