纸上谈兵 — Chinese idiom
纸上谈兵
zhǐ shàng tán bīng
Traditional: 紙上談兵
Meaning
- lit. military tactics on paper
- fig. theoretical discussion that is worse than useless in practice
- armchair strategist
- idle theorizing
- cf Zhao Kuo 赵括 (Zhào Kuò) leading an army of 400,000 to total annihilation at battle of Changping 长平之战 (Cháng píng zhī Zhàn) in 260 BC
Character by character
- 纸zhǐpaper
- 上shàngabove, on top, superior; to go up; to attend; prev
- 谈tánto talk, to chat; conversation; surname
- 兵bīngsoldier; troops, an army; warlike
Idioms sharing a character
- 一纸空文 yī zhǐ kōng wén
- 敬惜字纸 jìng xī zì zhǐ
- 洛阳纸贵 Luò yáng zhǐ guì
- 纸短情长 zhǐ duǎn qíng cháng
- 纸醉金迷 zhǐ zuì jīn mí
- 跃然纸上 yuè rán zhǐ shàng
- 钻故纸堆 zuān gù zhǐ duī
- 上下其手 shàng xià qí shǒu
- 上天入地 shàng tiān rù dì
- 上当受骗 shàng dàng shòu piàn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.