战国晚期，赵奢在阏与之战中大破秦军，受封马服君，是赵国最能征善战的将领之一。其子赵括自幼熟读兵书，谈起排兵布阵来引经据典、滔滔不绝，连父亲也辩他不过。
In the late Warring States period, Zhao She shattered a Qin army at the battle of E and was enfeoffed as Lord Mafu, one of Zhao’s most capable commanders. His son Zhao Kuo had read the military classics since boyhood, and when he discussed the disposition of troops he cited the texts endlessly; even his father could not out-argue him.
赵奢却始终忧心。他说，用兵是关乎生死存亡的大事，赵括谈起来却轻描淡写，并留下那句著名的预言：“使赵不将括即已，若必将之，破赵军者必括也。”
Yet Zhao She remained uneasy. He said that the use of troops was a matter of survival and destruction, while Zhao Kuo spoke of it lightly, and he left behind his famous prophecy: “If Zhao does not make Kuo a general, well and good; if it must, then the one who destroys the Zhao army will be Kuo.”
公元前262年，秦攻韩之上党，上党守将冯亭举郡降赵，秦国随即伐赵。赵孝成王派老将廉颇驻守长平。廉颇深沟高垒，坚壁不战，秦军屡攻不克，两军相持近三年。
In 262 BC, Qin attacked Shangdang, a commandery of Han. Its defender, Feng Ting, surrendered the whole territory to Zhao, and Qin promptly turned on Zhao. King Xiaocheng of Zhao sent the veteran Lian Po to hold Changping. Lian Po dug deep trenches, built high ramparts, and refused battle; the Qin army attacked again and again without success, and the two sides faced each other for nearly three years.
秦相应侯范雎派人携重金入赵行反间，散布流言：秦军所畏者，唯有马服君之子赵括；廉颇容易对付，不久就要投降。赵王本就嫌廉颇损兵折将、久不出战，听了这些话，便决定以赵括代之。
Fan Ju, the Qin chancellor, sent agents with heavy bribes into Zhao to sow disinformation, spreading the rumor that the only commander Qin feared was Lord Mafu’s son, Zhao Kuo, while Lian Po was easy to deal with and would soon surrender. The King of Zhao already resented Lian Po for losing men and refusing to fight for so long; hearing these reports, he resolved to replace him with Zhao Kuo.
蔺相如抱病进谏，说大王只凭虚名任用赵括，好比“胶柱而鼓瑟”，此人只会读父亲留下的兵书，不懂得随机应变；赵括的母亲也上书，转述丈夫生前的告诫，请求一旦兵败，不要连坐家人。赵王答应了她的请求，却仍命赵括出征。
Lin Xiangru, though ill, remonstrated that the king was appointing Zhao Kuo for his fame alone — like “gluing the pegs of a zither before playing it” — and that the man could only read the military books his father had left, without knowing how to adapt. Zhao Kuo’s mother also submitted a petition, repeating her husband’s warning and asking that the family not be punished if her son met defeat. The king granted her request, but still sent Zhao Kuo to the front.
赵括一到长平，便全盘推翻廉颇的部署，更换军官，改变军令，主动出兵攻秦。秦国暗中以白起为主将，严令保密。白起佯装败退，诱赵军深入，同时派出两支奇兵：一支两万五千人截断赵军后路，一支五千骑兵将赵军拦腰截为两段，并切断了粮道。
On reaching Changping, Zhao Kuo overturned Lian Po’s arrangements entirely, replaced the officers, changed the orders, and took the offensive against Qin. Qin secretly made Bai Qi its commander and ordered the appointment kept strictly secret. Bai Qi feigned retreat to draw the Zhao army forward, while sending out two striking forces: twenty-five thousand men to cut the Zhao rear, and five thousand cavalry to slice the army in two and sever its supply route.
赵军被围四十六天，粮草断绝。赵括亲率精锐突围，被秦军乱箭射死。据《史记》记载，余部四十余万人放下武器投降，白起以欺诈手段将他们尽数坑杀，只放回二百四十名年少者。
The Zhao army was encircled for forty-six days, its food gone. Zhao Kuo led his picked troops in a desperate breakout and was killed by a storm of Qin arrows. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the remaining four hundred thousand and more laid down their arms, and Bai Qi had them all buried alive by treachery, sending home only two hundred and forty of the youngest.
长平一战后，赵国青壮几乎丧尽，家家举哀，国力从此一蹶不振。赵括熟读兵书，却从未真正带过兵，把书本上的条条框框当成了战场的全部——后人所说的“纸上谈兵”，讥讽的正是这种脱离实际的空谈。
After Changping, Zhao had lost almost all its young men; every household was in mourning, and the state never recovered its strength. Zhao Kuo had read the military books thoroughly but had never truly led troops, and he mistook the formulas in those books for the whole of war. The later phrase 纸上谈兵, “talking about war on paper”, mocks exactly this kind of empty theory divorced from reality.