Proverbs and other works are mostly from the hands of rulers, even from the hands of Pharaoh, which are the teachings used by slave owners to teach their children and how their servants rule the people; Others are road maxims that promote positions and principles of action. Later generations traced Oracle Bone Inscriptions's literature back to the ancient kingdom period, and Proverbs of Putahutipu is the work of this period. In his later years, Minister Putahoutip taught his son and left more than 40 admonitions and proverbs, which are an important part of ancient Egyptian Oracle Bone Inscriptions literature. From the content or object of proverbs, some talk about personal cultivation, some talk about social morality, some talk about national politics, some talk about religious reincarnation, and so on. In these proverbs, ancient Egyptian philosophers put forward the moral standards of slave owners and nobles, aiming at consolidating slave society.
From the following Putahoutip proverbs, we can see people's moral concepts at that time:
If you want to be praised, you should avoid greed and not be friendly with it. It is a stubborn disease, the driving force of all kinds of bad things, and the root of all evil deeds.
This is against greed, lust and insatiable greed. However, all exploiters are greedy. They must extract more from the exploited, and they will never stop as long as they can. What is opposed here is not to usurp the interests of other slave owners.
The following proverbs are important experiences for the rich to stay rich:
If you become noble and rich, don't forget the poor days when others despise you.
In the exploiting class, power and wealth are always in constant turmoil and redistribution. If you want to maintain it, you must be temperate, be prepared for danger in times of peace, and never forget the poor days of that year.
Morality is the criterion of people's behavior and the summary of experience in adjusting the relationship between people, which is always class-oriented in class society.
But there are also some obscure categories, which sum up people's long-term accumulated practical experience and wisdom.
Such as the following three paragraphs:
Think before you do something, thoughtless behavior will make you laugh and be generous; Don't be arrogant in your actions, but speak kindly; Generosity can overcome difficulties, and grumpiness will definitely muddy life.
Reckless people turn a deaf ear to advice, regard ignorance as knowledge, loss as gain, and harsh words as their nourishment. What he did was random and blind.
Don't be deceived by your knowledge. Asking a fool for advice is the same as asking a wise man for advice. There is no end to learning, and no one can reach the peak. No scholar can talk about a certain science all the time. Valuable words are harder to find than jadeite. Even so, you may find it in the hands of a slave girl who pushes a mill.
Of these three paragraphs, one says to think twice before you act, not rashly, and to persuade people not to be proud and be generous; A piece of advice is hard to listen to, otherwise it is right or wrong; There is no end to lectures, so you shouldn't be ashamed to ask questions. Here, we can see from the sentence "You may have found it from a slave pushing a mill" that these proverbs are from the tone of slave owners, but the truth it says still has certain universal significance.
Heidi III's proverbs have political implications. Around 2200 BC, on the eve of the people's uprising, King Heidi III warned his son Heidi IV:
The king knows the people around him like the back of his hand; If he is experienced and knowledgeable, he can avoid being cheated and know the truth.
Whether you are the son of a great man or the son of a humble man, you should appoint people on their merits.
You'd better be kind and try your best, and people will erect a monument of love in their hearts. You have done a good deed, people will never forget your kindness, and wish you health and longevity.
These proverbs are about ruling experience. From the cultivation that the supreme ruler should have, we talk about the principle of employing people, the style and morality that should be possessed. It seems that this Hetty will not only hand over the throne to his son, but also teach his son all the experience of maintaining this throne. His heart is very uncomfortable.
There are also some proverbs, not only political, but also combined with the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt. The nature of this proverb literature, which combines religion and morality and serves the interests of slave owners, is clearly reflected:
Man is a servant of God, and he guides him to the right path. It was La Shen who created human beings in his own image. When he heard people's complaints and cries, he created everything in the world for them, arranged leaders to guard them, and held the hands of the weak among them.
Proverb literature in ancient Egypt was widely circulated because of the attention and advocacy of rulers, and a large number of samples were preserved in various periods. It is worth noting that in the later famous Wisdom of Solomon, we can see traces of proverbs written by Pugehotip, an ancient Egyptian priest and writer, and Oman Nueru, his former philosopher.