📖 Meaning
To talk at great length in a lofty, expansive manner, often without addressing concrete realities. It describes someone holding forth grandly and abstractly, usually with more rhetoric than substance.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase traces to a poem by the Tang dynasty figure Lü Yan (吕岩), titled 'Hui Zong Zhai Hui' (《徽宗斋会》), which contains the line '高谈阔论若无人，可惜明君不遇真' — 'talking loftily and broadly as if no one else were present, alas that no true wise ruler appears.' Over time the character order shifted to 阔论高谈 while retaining the same sense of grand, impractical discourse.
💡 Example Usage
会议上他阔论高谈，却提不出任何实际可行的方案。
At the meeting he held forth in lofty, sweeping terms, yet failed to propose any actually workable plan.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 阔论高谈
- Pinyin: kuò lùn gāo tán
- Literal Translation: broad, discuss, high, talk
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4