紙上談兵

to win a war with words

紙上談兵

In the Warring States Period (戰(zhàn)國), the State of Zhao (趙國) had a famous general called Zhao She, whose son, Zhao Kuo, was very fond of reading books on military science and discussingstrategy.

戰(zhàn)國時，趙國名將趙奢 (shē) 的兒子趙括，喜歡看兵書，并且喜愛討論軍事戰(zhàn)術(shù)。

He could learn military texts by heart, and when discussing warfare he spoke so clearly andlogically that it seemed that even his father was not his match.

他把兵書背得滾瓜爛熟，談起打仗來頭頭是道，好像他的父親都不是他的對手。

When the State of Qin attacked the State of Zhao, the ruler of Zhao ordered Zhao Kuo to lead 400,000 men to resist the attack.

當秦國攻進軍攻擊趙國的時候，趙王派趙括率領(lǐng)四十萬大軍去抵抗。

But since Zhao Kuo had no practical experience of battle, he was defeated and lost his life.

由于他只知道死摳書本而不會在實際中靈活運用，最后指揮失策，以致全軍覆滅，他自己也中箭身亡。

Later people used this idiom to describe those who are good only at theorizing, and lack practical experience.

最后人們根據(jù)這一歷史故事，把死摳書本，沒有實際經(jīng)驗，只會夸夸其談稱為“紙上談兵”。

【文化鏈接】

英語中“紙上談兵”的表達方式相對比較直白，通常可以說“to win a war with words”，在經(jīng)典影片《亂世佳人》中，戰(zhàn)爭爆發(fā)前夕，當南方貴族們在夸夸其談討論如何作戰(zhàn)時，白瑞德就說道：

“I think it’s hard winning a war with words.”(“我認為紙上談兵沒什么作用。”)