In modern Chinese, the verb 'listen' can be matched with the compound direction complements like 'Qilai''Xialai''Xiaqu''Shangqu''Jinqu''Chulai' and so on, but cannot be matched with other compound direction complements.By analysizing the verb 'listen' and compound direction complements in group, we find that the semantic restriction of 'listen', the semantic vagueness of direction complement, the cognition and language habit are the reasons behind this asymmetry phenomenon.