'Learn to handle a writing-brush and you’ll never handle a begging-bowl.'

This is a Chinese proverb that makes me concerned that, in this age of the computer keyboard, I have no familiarity with the Chinese writing brush and am destined for a future of penury and woe. 

However, some time ago it struck me that, while such sayings seem sage, no-one has actually gone out and rigorously tested them.

So I have dedicated myself to that end.

You can read my conclusions at my proverb testing blog, proverbial experiments: