纸上谈兵 — Chinese idiom

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.