汉英词典
Chinese-English Dictionary
MEANING OF 纸上谈兵
zhǐ shàng tán bīng
纸上谈兵 (紙上談兵)
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 leading an army of 400,000 to total annihilation at battle of Changping 長平之戰|长平之战 in 260 BC
Talk about wars on paper / An analogy of empty talk about theory cannot solve practical problems / It also metaphors that empty talk cannot become a reality
空虚 空洞 肤浅 虚无 虚空 悬空 架空 泛泛 空泛 浮泛
身经百战
语出《史记·廉颇蔺相如列传》战国时赵国名将赵奢的儿子赵括从小读兵书，谈起兵法连父亲也难不倒他。但是带兵打仗却不会根据实际情况灵活运用，被秦兵打败◇用来指不切实际夸夸其谈。
纸 (紙) zhǐ 上 shàng 谈 (談) tán 兵 bīng
EXAMPLE SENTENCES

这不是纸上谈兵。这一切正在发生。

This is not theory. It is happening.

马化腾并不是一个纸上谈兵的人。

Ma Huateng is not the person of a be an armchair strategist.

而且这个想法并不只是纸上谈兵。

And it isn't just an idea on paper.

我在这里并不是纸上谈兵或者自作聪明。

I'm not being figurative or clever here.

现在这一切都是纸上谈兵—反正我们赢不了。

The whole thing's academic now—we can't win anyway.

我们其实是在纸上谈兵，然而坐而论道不一定毫无意义。

Actually, all we are doing now is just talking without taking any action, but this does not mean that it is meaningless at all.

现在，随着选举的临近，这一切都不再是纸上谈兵了。

Now, as an election approaches, it's not just a theory.

纸上谈兵易如反掌，然而在实际生活中，这个道理未必总是行得通。

This works well on paper, but not necessarily so in real life situations.

我要指出的是，很多关于网络中立性的争论很大程度上都是“纸上谈兵”。

What I was contrasting that with is that a lot of the brouhaha with net neutrality is fairly theoretical.

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