- lit. military tactics on paper (idiom); fig. theoretical discussion that is worse than useless in practice; armchair strategist; idle theorizing; cf Zhao Kuo 赵括 leading an army of 400,000 to total annihilation at battle of Changping 长平之战 in 260 BC
- to pay no heed to (idiom); to ignore; to brush aside
- loyal advice jars on the ears (idiom)
- to play deaf-mute
- to abandon oneself to despair; to give up and stop bothering
- regeneration through one's own effort (idiom); self-reliance
- lit. to view the sky from the bottom of a well (idiom); ignorant and narrow-minded