







不懂装懂 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to pretend to understand when one doesn't”. To feign knowledge.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang, the strategist of Shu Kingdom, used a clever stratagem to enrage and cause the death of Cao Zhen, a general of Wei Kingdom.
Subsequently, Sima Yi, another general of Wei, was ordered to lead a large army towards Mount Qi. Zhuge Liang deployed his troops in the Bagua Formation (Eight Trigrams Formation).
Sima Yi, not understanding how to break the formation, stubbornly ordered his generals Zhang Hu and Dai Ling to attack it. They were all captured.
Shu generals Guan Xing and Jiang Wei then launched a pincer attack from three sides, and Sima Yi suffered a crushing defeat and retreated.

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Open the tool →不懂装懂 (bù dǒng zhuāng dǒng) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to pretend to understand when one doesn't”.
不懂装懂 is pronounced bù dǒng zhuāng dǒng in Mandarin Chinese.
不懂装懂 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to modern Chinese. The full story is on this page.
自己不懂却装作很精通的样子。