- lit. military tactics on paper (idiom)
- fig. theoretical discussion that is worse than useless in practice
- armchair strategist
- idle theorizing
- cf 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
Characters
- 纸 (帋): variant of 紙|纸[zhi3]
- 上 (上): used in 上聲|上声[shang3 sheng1]
- 谈 (談): surname Tan
- 兵 (兵): soldiers; a force; an army; weapons; arms; military; warlike; CL:個|个[ge4]
Resources
- Wiktionary: 纸上谈兵
- MDBG: 纸上谈兵
- Examples with 纸上谈兵 on Tatoeba
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