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[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 and words in 紙上談兵

paper / CL:張|张[zhang1],沓[da2] / classifier for documents, letter etc

= + : James II of England (zh) is reading a newspaper (纸) in the space station (Ø3) as he discovers a silk worm (纟) is looking out of a big hole at him. James II of England is very angry at the silk worm, but he doesn't understand that the silk worm wanted to warn him against a great threat: Christopher MacLeod (氏) is standing behind him ready to kill him and take his super power. The silk worm in turn doesn't know that Christopher MacLeod has in fact come for him: he wants to have the super power of turning into a beautiful butterfly.
used in 上聲|上声[shang3 sheng1]
(bound form) up; upper; above; previous / first (of multiple parts) / to climb; to get onto; to go up / to attend (class or university) / (directional complement) up / (noun suffix) on; above

= + : Sherlock Holmes (sh) investigates a mysterious murder in the anglepod's bathroom (ang4). Somebody has been killed while using the golden squat toilet. He finds a mysterious apparatus on top (上) of it, and breaks it open using a dinosaur bone (丨). As the apparatus breaks, he finds the murderer's weapon: The dinosaur bone is sticking in a capacitor (二), which has been hooked up to the golden squat toilet to kill the victim using the lethal electric charge.

= + : Mnemonic symbol: as in the movie "Up", someone will be using lots of balloons to send something on a long journey. Sherlock Holmes (sh) prepares to take off in the anglepod's bathroom (ang4). He fixed a lot of balloons (上) to a flute (一), on which he plans to sit during his journey. At this moment the flute is only held back by the 90 degree corner clamp (丄) which is fixing it to the ground.
surname Tan

= + : Tecumseh ate too much in the anthill and wants to leave, but the entrance is blocked by a very modern talking advertising column. The advertising is talking a lot of nonsense and Tecumseh would just have to request it to step aside, but he ate too much and his itis is so strong that he can't even talk.
to speak / to talk / to converse / to chat / to discuss

= + : Tecumseh ate too much in the anthill and wants to leave, but the entrance is blocked by a very modern talking advertising column. The advertising is talking a lot of nonsense and Tecumseh would just have to request it to step aside, but he ate too much and his itis is so strong that he can't even talk.
soldiers / a force / an army / weapons / arms / military / warlike / CL:個|个[ge4]

= + : Brunhilde and the soldier visit a burial mound in front of the engine. It is round like a ball like the deceased inside. To commemorate the round fallen soldier they put up a big eight-ball.

Words with 紙上談兵

紙上談兵 is not used as a component in another word.

Sentences with 紙上談兵

紙上談兵 currently does not appear in any sentence.