Papermaking appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Why was there an armchair strategist in Zhao Kuo during the Warring States Period?

Zhao Kuo only knew how to copy the art of war in books, but he didn't know how to use it in practice, which led to Zhao's final failure and his own death in the army. Later, he ended up with an "armchair strategist" joke. Although it seems that there is no problem with this word now, it was very problematic at that time, because papermaking was only available in the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is to say, paper became something that ordinary people could afford after the Eastern Han Dynasty, but Zhao Kuo was a Warring States, so how could there be an "armchair strategist"?

Indeed, we have been using the idiom "an armchair strategist" for a long time, so that it has become a common saying. But what we never expected was that it was about Zhao Kuo, but in Zhao Kuo's time, there was no invention of paper. So how did the armchair strategist come from?

First, the original text on the paper

Theoretically, we all know that Zhao Kuo, the general of Zhao, was inflexible because he only knew the art of war, which led to his failure and ruined Zhao's army. That is: the army was defeated, hundreds of thousands of people surrendered to Qin, and Qin learned about it.

About Zhao Kuo's troops, it comes from Sima Qian's Historical Records, which says: "Zhao Kuo learned the art of war when he was young, and when it comes to military affairs, the world is incompetent." It is not difficult to talk to my father about the military, but it is not good. "

In other words, Zhao Kuo studied the Art of War from an early age. Speaking of leading the war, he thinks that no one in the world can beat him. Zhao Kuo once discussed the war with his father Zhao She. Zhao She can't beat Zhao Kuo, but Zhao She thinks Zhao Kuo's war level is not good.

At this time, there was Zhao She's statement, that is to say, Zhao She thought that Zhao Kuo's level of fighting was average, and Zhao She said, "The soldiers will die, but it's easier said than done. If Zhao does not contain it, it will contain it. If Zhao is broken, it will contain it. "

Zhao She said that fighting is a matter of life and death, but Zhao Kuo simplified it. If Zhao doesn't let Zhao Kuo be a general, that's all. If he leads an army to fight, it must be that Zhao Kuo failed Zhao. At this time, there is something we call an armchair strategist.

Another Lin Xiangru commented on Zhao Kuo: "Kutu can read his father's biography, but he doesn't know how to change it." This means that although Zhao Kuo can read the Art of War, he doesn't know how to use it flexibly. This is what we now call an armchair strategist.

Therefore, when we read Historical Records, Sima Qian did not explicitly put forward the word "an armchair strategist", although he meant to express an armchair strategist.

Second, about paper.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people used bamboo slips to record characters. There is an idiom called "learning to be rich and getting five cars", which is about Keiko in the Warring States period. All five cars here are loaded with bamboo slips. If it is a paper book, then this person's literary talent is amazing. In addition, there is a word called "knife and pen official", which describes the small officials who wrote on bamboo slips at that time, wrote with a pen, and scraped them off with a knife if they made mistakes.

Visible in the era of Zhao Kuo, it is impossible to have the emergence of paper. Zhao Kuo's art of war should also belong to bamboo slips.

Later, after archaeology, a batch of "Baqiao Paper" was unearthed, presumably during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. But the paper at that time was very expensive, but the effect was not good. The legendary Dong Fangshuo, as we know, used 3000 pieces of bamboo slips when he wrote to Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. It took two people to carry these bamboo slips, but it took Emperor Wu two months to finish reading them.

This shows that although there was paper at that time, not many people used it.

Therefore, according to my inference, the word "armchair strategist" belongs to the product of later generations' structure. The embryonic form of an armchair strategist should have started from the Song Dynasty, because people in the Song Dynasty valued literature over martial arts, and there were often things in which literati led troops to fight and led to great defeat. Therefore, words like this are used to describe literati. So it was not originally used to describe Zhao Kuo.

Some people say it's a poem written by people in the Ming dynasty: the ruling and opposition parties still claim to be an armchair strategist. But the source is difficult to prove and doubtful.

Some people say it came from the invention of the Qing Dynasty. In a word, the word "on paper" belongs to the product of later generations. Zhao Kuo should say that Talking about Soldiers on Bamboo is more correct. But there is no need to change it, because we value its meaning more than its story.