Advance and retreat
As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is j ì NTU ì sh ī J ù, which means that both advance and retreat have lost their basis. It's about nowhere. It's also a dilemma. It is the same as "no basis for advance and retreat". From Li Jieren's big wave.
The origin of Idioms
Chapter 7 of the third part of Li Jieren's big wave: "in case Zhao Jihe colludes with him and makes him take advantage of my shortcomings and go through my gaps, then I will have enemies on all sides and fall into a dilemma."
Idiom usage
Be in trouble
Advance and retreat
one 's mind concealed more knowledge than could have been contained in five cartloads of books - xué fù wǔ chē