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纸上谈兵

zhǐ shàng tán bīng

4-character word Traditional 紙上談兵

What 纸上谈兵 means

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 {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

The characters in 纸上谈兵

• 纸zhǐpaper; classifier for documents, letters etc
• 上shàng(bound form) up; upper; above; previous; first (of multiple parts); to climb…
• 谈tánto speak; to talk; to converse
• 兵bīngsoldiers; a force; an army