紙上談兵

zhǐ shàng tán bīng

C1–C2 Level 7

Definition

  1. lit. military tactics on paper (idiom)
  2. fig. theoretical discussion that is worse than useless in practice
  3. armchair strategist
  4. idle theorizing
  5. cf Zhao Kuo 趙括 leading an army of 400,000 to total annihilation at battle of Changping 長平之戰 in 260 BC

Stroke order

Tap a character to replay.

Related words at this level

Vocabulary & levels: TBCL / NAER. Parts of speech: TOCFL 8000-word list (SC-TOP). Definitions: CC-CEDICT & CFDICT (CC BY-SA). Stroke data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License).