唱空城计

Pronunciation: chàng kōng chéng jì Literal meaning: Perform empty city strategy

Origin & Usage

To 唱 (sing, perform) the empty-city stratagem. The base is 空城计, the episode in Romance of the Three Kingdoms in which Zhuge Liang, holding a town with almost no troops, throws the gates open and sits on the wall playing the zither until Sima Yi reads the display as bait and withdraws. Adding 唱 moves the phrase from the stratagem itself to the act of putting it on, and it borrows the verb used for performing opera — which is why the phrase carries a whiff of theatre. In ordinary modern use it has drifted well away from war: a shop with nothing on the shelves, a department covering for staff who have all left, anyone keeping up a confident front over an empty position.

Examples

English: "The financially struggling company projected confidence to prevent competitors from attacking"

Chinese: 这家财务困难的公司展现出信心，以防止竞争对手发起攻击