纸上谈兵

Traditional: 紙上談兵

zhǐ shàng tán bīng

Dictionary entry

lit. military tactics on paper (idiom)

What does 纸上谈兵 mean?

纸上谈兵 (zhǐ shàng tán bīng) has the following dictionary meaning.

1lit. military tactics on paper (idiom)

2fig. theoretical discussion that is worse than useless in practice

3armchair strategist

4idle theorizing

5cf Zhao Kuo 趙括|赵括[Zhao4 Kuo4] leading an army of 400,000 to total annihilation at battle of Changping 長平之戰|长平之战[Chang2 ping2 zhi1 Zhan4] in 260 BC

Character breakdown

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纸zhǐvariant of 紙|纸[zhi3]上shǎngused in 上聲|上声[shang3 sheng1]谈Tánsurname Tan 兵bīngsoldiers · a force

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How to pronounce 纸上谈兵

纸上谈兵

zhǐ shàng tán bīng

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Base dictionary data: CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA 4.0.