纸上富贵

Pronunciation: zhǐ shàng fù guì Literal meaning: Wealth on paper only

Origin & Usage

Wealth and rank (富贵) that exist on paper (纸上) and nowhere else. The phrase is patterned on 纸上谈兵 — "discussing warfare on paper," the phrase for Zhao Kuo, who had mastered the military texts and lost an army the moment he commanded one — and it borrows that construction's judgement wholesale: 纸上 marks the gap between a thing written down and the same thing in the world. It is not itself a classical idiom with a source of its own. Modern use runs to valuations, projections and holdings that have never been converted into anything.

Examples

English: "The entrepreneur's business looked impressive in presentations but generated little actual revenue"

Chinese: 这位企业家的业务在演示中看起来令人印象深刻，但几乎没有产生实际收入