What is ancient Egyptian literature?

Egypt is an ancient civilization with a long history and one of the cradles of the oldest human civilization. As early as 5000 BC, the ancient Egyptians began to settle in the highlands on both sides of the Nile, creating a developed ancient Egyptian culture. Egyptian literature is an important part of ancient Egyptian culture, which reflects the life and production struggle between ancient Egyptians and slavery society at the end of primitive commune society.

On both sides of the Nile, the primitive commune system disintegrated earlier than other places. Around 4000 BC, a series of small slave countries appeared here, which were later merged into two big countries, namely upper Egypt and lower Egypt. After years of war, upper Egypt defeated lower Egypt and established a unified slave country.

In 33 15 BC, the Egyptian 1 dynasty was established, with Mina as the king and Knus as the capital. Generally speaking, Egypt can be divided into four periods from the establishment of the 1 dynasty to the restoration of the 26th dynasty, namely, from 1 to the 2nd dynasty (33 15~ 3000 BC) as the early dynasty; The 3 rd to 8 th dynasties (3000~ 2360 BC) were the ancient kingdom period; The 9th ~17th dynasty (2360~ 1584 BC) was the Middle Kingdom period; The period from 18 to the 26th dynasty (BC 1584~ 525) was the new kingdom. And 1 about before the establishment of the dynasty 1000 is called the pre-dynasty period.

After the establishment of the Egyptian 1 dynasty, hieroglyphs and papyrus scrolls made of papyrus growing on both sides of the Nile were invented around 3300 BC. In this way, what was said orally before is now recorded in words. Human society has entered a historic period. Some literary works that were circulated among the people in the past have also been preserved.

Myth first appeared in Egyptian literature. At that time, people thought that every field of life was controlled by one god or several gods because they could not explain natural phenomena, such as the sun god Ra, the water god Nu, the Nile, the god of land and harvest Osiris, the evil god Seth, the god of death Nebuchadnezzar, the god of wisdom and books, the goddess of love Hector, the god of war Hal and so on. Correspondingly, myths about these gods also appeared. First, there are myths about the creation of the world. Some myths say that the world was created by longicorn beetles, while others say that it was created by He Nong's plastic soil, but the most common saying is that the sun god La is the god who created the world. It is said that at the beginning of chaos, La took shape in the angry body of the water god, rose on the water in the shape of an egg bud, became the sun, and the earth began to get light and heat. Lashen created heaven, earth, sun, moon, starry sky and everything.

In ancient Egyptian mythology, the myth about Osiris spread widely. Osiris is the god of water and plants, the god of Nile, land and harvest, the disseminator of agriculture and culture, and the king of the underworld after his death.

In ancient Egyptian literature, poetry is relatively developed and the earliest literary genre. On the stone pillars and walls of ancient Egyptian cemeteries, papyrus scrolls and religious poetry collections, a large number of poems are preserved. They are rich in content and diverse in forms, including secular poems, religious poems, religious philosophy poems, hymns and so on.

Among the secular poems in ancient Egypt, the earliest is the labor ballad, which appeared about 3000 BC. It was first sung orally and then recorded. For example, the songs of plowman, thresher and thresher were found on the wall of Pahli's tomb in Cabo, Egypt. Not many such works have been handed down, but they truly reflect the life, productive labor and ideological interest of slaves at that time, and are the essence of ancient literature. In addition, there are some love poems that show the pure feelings of mutual admiration between young men and women at that time, and also belong to secular poems and the like.

In ancient Egypt, people worshipped gods. They regard all activities such as literature, art, architecture and sculpture as the activities of God. There is a truth in their concept of omnipotence of divine power. Literature and art are not a simple negative reflection of things in the real world, but a reflection of their own lives and a means to prolong their existence in people's memory. This was developed on the basis of worshipping nature in ancient times. As a result, a large number of religious poems appeared.

The Book of the Dead is a huge and complicated collection of religious poems, which consists of a large number of fairy poems, prayer poems, ode poems, ballads and spells. The ancient Egyptians believed that after death, the "library" of human soul must go through a period of inferior life and undergo various tests before it can see the light again, ascend to heaven or be reborn. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians attached great importance to the preservation of the corpse and the guidance of life after death, mummified the corpse and put such poems in the sarcophagus as a guide for the deceased to travel in the underworld.

Although the Book of Death was written in the New Kingdom period, it contains some chapters of pyramid inscriptions in the ancient kingdom period and sarcophagus inscriptions in the middle kingdom period, so it is a masterpiece of religious poetry in ancient Egypt.

In ancient Egyptian poetry, there are many hymns praising the sun god, the land god, the water god, Osiris and some kings, such as Ode to Adon (the sun god) and Ode to the Nile, which are all famous works in ancient Egyptian poetry.

The most famous religious philosophy poem in ancient Egypt is the dialogue between the disappointed and the soul, which not only compares death to human happiness, but also makes a voice of resistance. It is considered as one of the most successful poems in ancient Egypt.

In addition, in every period of ancient Egypt, biographical literature, proverbs and dramatic works were produced. Biographical literature includes Biography of Mei Teng in the Ancient Kingdom, Biography of Minister Wu Ni, Travel Notes of Amon of the United Nations University in the New Kingdom, Biography of Ahmed, Biography of Tuthmus III, etc. Proverbs include Putaontaipu proverbs in the ancient kingdom, Hetty III, Ipwe and Neferti proverbs in the middle kingdom, and Oman Monaipu proverbs in the new kingdom.

Ancient Egyptian drama works were developed in religious sacrificial activities, such as the fragment drama script of "Mourning and Resurrection of Osiris" in the ancient kingdom pyramid inscription, the poem drama script of "Essis and Navozis Crying in front of Osiris's body" in the middle kingdom, and the paintings of personal drama performances preserved on the pillar of Ihlet.

myth

Myth is one of the earliest literary forms handed down from ancient Egypt, the most famous of which are:

Pull the myth of the sun god. Myth says: La Shen lives in the lotus, rises to become the sun, and there is light on earth from then on. One day, La Shen cried, and human beings were born in his tears. Later, La Shen became old, his flesh turned into gold, his bones into silver, and his hair turned into stone. This myth reflects the ancient Egyptians' explanations of the formation of heaven and earth, the birth of human beings, and the sources of gold and silver.

The myth about Osiris. In ancient times, Egyptians believed that water, soil, plants and crops were controlled by Osiris, a god of nature. But after the transition from primitive society to slave society, this natural god was transformed into a social god and became a king of Egypt. According to the myth, the king was kind to the people, but he was killed by his bad brother Seth, and his body was put in a coffin and thrown into the Nile. Later, his beloved wife revived him with the help of the gods, and his son avenged him and killed Seth. His son became the king of Egypt. After Osiris died, he became the king of the underworld.

The evolution of this myth reflects the evolution of Egypt from clan system to slavery in twists and turns, but it is branded with class in the evolution. Advocate the concept of "divine right of kingship"

story

Story is one of the main genres of ancient Egyptian literature creation, and a large number of story works have been handed down in various historical periods. This story originated from people's oral creation. Although influenced and modified by the ruling class or professional literati in the later period of circulation, recording and processing, it inevitably has a strong sense of ruling class, mysticism and religious superstition, but it still has obvious characteristics of folk oral creation, strong criticism and fighting spirit, and has always been loved by the Egyptian people.

The Magician's Story, which is now preserved in the "West Cardboard Grass" of Berlin Museum, is the earliest story work handed down from ancient Egypt. It was formed in the 4th to 6th dynasties of the ancient kingdom (2650-2200 BC) and written in the 12 dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (2060- 1783 BC).

This story includes three short stories, telling the story of a magician told by three princes of King Khufu. Although they all described some magical magic in a romantic way, from the plot and artistic image of the whole story, they all showed the real life of some princes and ministers in the ruling class at that time. They propagated the idea that all kings in Egypt are "sons of God" and some moral norms that are beneficial to the ruling class, so as to consolidate the rule of the slave-owning class.

The period of the Middle Kingdom is the prosperous period of ancient Egyptian literature, which is called the period of classical literature in history. At this time, with the expansion of social and economic activities and the development of literature, there are more stories in literary works, and some famous Egyptian stories have appeared, such as Villagers and Employees, Sailors in distress, and The Adventures of Nehart. Most of these stories describe the adventures of the protagonists, and the plots are generally tortuous, which shows that the social horizons and knowledge fields of Egyptians were broader at that time, and also reflect the military and trade policies of Egyptian slave countries and the increasing exchanges with overseas neighbors. The ruling class encourages people to develop overseas and seek wealth. Some of these stories are true reflections of historical events, while others are fiction.

Villagers and Employees is one of the best stories in ancient Egypt.

It tells the story of a farmer named Sekti, who lives in Yanxiang, who used a donkey to carry the native products of his hometown to the south of Saitan, Hainan, to sell. On the way, he was deliberately made trouble by Hemti, the general manager of the royal family in charge of local public security work, on the pretext that the donkey had eaten the wheat seedlings in the general manager's adult wheat field. He not only beat Sekti up, but also robbed him of his goods and donkey, and threatened him not to shout loudly, otherwise he would be sent to see the silent ghost. Sekti stayed here all day, saying good or bad, and Hemuti ignored him. At last, he couldn't bear it any longer, so he had to go to Hennessy to complain to Lord Meruitanza, the head of the royal family. After hearing his two statements accusing Hemuti of crimes, the royal leader immediately told the king that he had found a man who was good at rhetoric among the peasants. The king told the housekeeper not to make a hasty decision and let him go on. It was not until Sekti sued for the ninth time that the king decided to punish the robbers.

This story reflects China's early class contradictions through a farmer's clever rhetoric, exposes the evil deeds of the ruling class giants and servants, sends out the just voice of the oppressed people, and praises the indomitable struggle spirit of an ordinary farmer against plunder and persecution.

During the development of ancient Egypt to a new kingdom, the contradiction between the ruling class and the broad masses of the people became increasingly acute, and frequent foreign invasions put the ruling class in jeopardy. Therefore, the story works produced in this period are not only numerous and bizarre, but also reflect a wider range of social life and deeper content. Story works that appeared in the new kingdom period include Occupy Yuba City, Destiny's Prince, Ampu and Vata Brothers, Sedna and the Magic Book, The Story of Truth and Lies, Debate between Body and Mind, Travels of Vernamon, etc.

The doomed prince was born in the last leaf of the new kingdom 18 dynasty. Its theme is universal, but it is the earliest of its kind. It tells the story of a king who prayed to the gods and got a son because he had no son. But the gods predicted that the prince would be unlucky in the future: "He will die of crocodiles, snakes or dogs." In order to make the prince escape the doomed fate, the king ordered people to build a mansion in the desert, equipped with all the materials and servants. But when the prince grew up, he thought that since he was doomed to bad luck, he should leave it to fate. With the king's consent, he wandered out and married the daughter of a chief in Mesopotamia. After marriage, he told his wife about his doomed misfortune, and her wife took precautions. Although she killed the crocodile and the snake that crawled into the city, she was finally killed by her domestic dog.

By describing the conflict between man's desire for survival and God's will and destiny, this story shows that people are beginning to realize that they should resist God's will and destiny, which has certain progressive significance. It also indirectly reflects the crisis that no successor of the slave owner's ruling class will collapse.

The two brothers, Angpu and Watta, are stories recorded by the 19 dynasty. It tells the story that Amp and his wife raised their younger brother Watta when they were young. Watta respected his brother and sister-in-law as parents and wholeheartedly did all the work at home and in the field for them. The family has been living a peaceful and harmonious life, but Amp's wife later found Watta young, handsome and powerful. When Watta was alone with her, she teased Watta with words, but Watta sternly refused. She complained to the wicked first, and when her husband came back from the field at night, she falsely accused Watta of molesting her. Angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry, angry. Because he is an ox of the Nine Gods, the gods pity him and let him be a beautiful woman to accompany him. Later, this beautiful woman was robbed by Lao Wang. She framed Watta many times in front of the Pharaoh. Watta was deformed many times, came back to life several times, went through hardships, and finally became king, and finally avenged himself.

This story is full of imagination and twists and turns. Through the description of Vata's resurrection and deformation, it is implied that Vata is the incarnation of Osiris, the god of death and recovery in nature, which shows the wit and strength of the working people and reflects the good wishes of the working people at that time to get rid of the oppressed and enslaved slave status.

Ancient Egyptian stories have reached a high level in ideological content and artistic skills, which typically reflects the characteristics of Egyptian folk oral literature creation. They are not only the precious heritage of Egyptian literature, but also have a beneficial impact on the development of world literature, especially the development of prose creation.

poetic sentiment

Poetry was relatively developed in ancient Egyptian literature. On the stone pillars and walls of ancient Egyptian cemeteries, papyrus scrolls and religious poetry collections, a large number of poems, including secular poems, religious poems, hymns and religious philosophy poems, are preserved. They reflected people's living and production conditions, thoughts and feelings and yearning for the future at that time.

In ancient Egyptian poetry, the earliest is the labor ballad, which was produced before 3000 BC. Most of these works are written in oral literature, and they are sung orally before being recorded in hieroglyphics. Due to the prejudice of the ruling class in previous dynasties, such works were not widely circulated, but they profoundly reflected the life struggle and ideological aspirations of the working people at that time.

Song of the tiller, Song of the thresher and Song of the grain mover are three ancient Egyptian labor ballads preserved on the tomb wall of Cabo Pahri in Egypt. These three labor ballads are said to be the works of BC16th century18th dynasty. These are the earliest labor songs we can see now. They may have existed for a long time before they were recorded. They are sung by villagers and slaves in fields, threshing floors and docks with their labor. They are all recorded in hieroglyphics, and there are pictures beside the songs, which are vivid and vivid. Such as "The Ballad of the Tiller":

Come on, captain,

Drive those bulls away!

Look, your majesty is standing there,

Look at us.

Judging from the words and pictures of this poem, it was a song sung by villagers or slaves who worked for the royal family at that time while grazing or farming in the fields. When they were working, they were very nervous when they saw the royal shepherd coming from a distance, so they quickly reminded their leaders to drive the bulls to avoid being reprimanded or punished by their owners.

From the simple language, rapid beat and nervous psychology of this ballad, it shows the forced labor of villagers or slaves at that time and their fear and dissatisfaction with slave owners. Look at the songs of the threshing machine again;

Hit yourself, hit yourself,

Oh, bull, do it yourself!

Put down the straw to feed yourself,

Xiaomi will be given to your host family.

Don't stop,

You know, it's cool today.

This poem seems to be sung by villagers or slaves when they are playing on the threshing floor. Its characteristic is that villagers or slaves vent their resentment in an ironic way under the pretext of talking with bulls, which indirectly reflects the exploitation of villagers or slaves by slave owners, indicating that slaves have worked hard to cultivate, sow and harvest all year round, but the millet they beat is completely handed over to slave owners, and only some chaff and chaff can be dropped to satisfy their hunger. There is also a "Ballad of Valley Movers":

Should we take barley and wheat all day?

The warehouse is full,

Handfuls of millet rolled off the edge;

The boat is also full,

Xiaomi also rolled outside,

But forced us to carry it,

It seems that our hearts are made of bronze!

This poem clearly shows the dissatisfaction and resistance of villagers or slaves to their tense labor and situation. They asked bluntly, "Should we take barley and wheat with us all day?" Such a sharp question. This ballad shows the extreme resentment and injustice of villagers or slaves recruited to move the valley against heavy and persistent forced labor.

These three labor ballads are different from a large number of religious poems and hymns handed down from ancient Egypt. They are the oldest literary works reflecting class contradictions. With rich flavor of life, vivid and powerful language, fresh and meaningful artistic techniques and dialogue forms that directly express inner feelings, they show the unique artistic style of ancient Egyptian labor ballads and the distinctive characteristics of folk oral creation. Therefore, these labor ballads are not only the essence of ancient Egyptian literature, but also important documents and materials of ancient Egypt, which have high historical value and are worth cherishing.

In addition to the labor ballads mentioned above, there are also some love songs that express love life. Love songs in ancient Egypt can usually be sung to the accompaniment of flute and harp. In this kind of love songs, lovers and female lovers correspond as brothers and sisters in duet, expressing the pure feelings of young men and women in love at that time. The following is a fragment of a love song that has been handed down to this day:

She is the only elder sister in the world,

No one can match her in beauty.

Look, she is like a star in the sky.

It symbolizes the birth of a happy year.

She was radiant and delicate,

Her bright eyes are charming.

Sweet, those two lips,

Never say anything superfluous.

A slender neck, a symmetrical head,

Pure lapis lazuli is her hair.

Her hands are better than gold,

Her fingers are like lotus flowers.

Her feet bear her beauty,

Her light steps danced on the ground.

People just have to walk past her,

They all turned to look at her.

In this love song, the lover directly compares the beauty of the girl he loves with the most realistic and cherished object at that time. The comparison of hair to lapis lazuli, hands to gold and fingers to lotus shows the simple aesthetic concept of ordinary Egyptians at that time.

In ancient Egypt, due to the prevalence of worship of gods, religion had a great influence on literature and art. People regarded all activities in literature and art, architecture and sculpture as some kind of activities of gods. The ancient Egyptians' concept of divine power and omnipotence also contains the truth that literature and art are not a simple and negative reflection of things in the real world, but a reflection of their lives and a means to prolong their existence in people's memory. This is based on the ancient worship of nature.

In the ancient kingdom period, after the strengthening of the central Pharaoh regime, a unified worship of the sun god arose in Egypt, and the sun god La was regarded as the highest god. During the Middle Kingdom, because Thebes unified Egypt, Amon became the supreme god of the country. During the period of the New Kingdom, when Ihnaton of the 18 dynasty reformed religion, Adong was regarded as the only sun god. Therefore, in ancient Egyptian literature, a large number of religious poems have appeared, which have been recorded throughout the ages, but most of them have been preserved until the Middle Kingdom period.

One of the oldest literary works in Egypt is the Book of Death (or translated from the Book of Death). Most of the poems in The Book of the Dead have strong religious thoughts, which reflect the religious beliefs of ancient Egyptians and the concept of ghost country, and mainly express the ideological tendency of the slave owners, but some poems or paragraphs also reflect the people's thoughts and feelings. As written in Another World:

You're no longer in your

Stumbling on the chosen road,

All the evil and darkness

It all comes from your heart.

By the river,

Drink water and wash your hands and feet.

Or cast a net,

It must be full of fish.

In ancient Egyptian poetry, there are many hymns praising the sun god, the land god, the water god, Osiris and some kings. Ode to Adon (the Sun God) is a famous poem in ancient times. Written in the 18th Dynasty during the time of Ikene, a legalist, he declared that the sun god was the only supreme god worshipped by the country. It enthusiastically praised the great power of the sun god who created life on earth:

Your beautiful image appears in the horizon,

You live above God, the beginning of life!

When you rise from the eastern horizon,

You spread your beauty to the earth.

When you fall in the west,

The earth is trapped in the darkness like death.

Praise for the Nile is one of the important themes in Egyptian literature. The ancient Egyptians praised the Nile as a great and wonderful thing, because it used its flooded river to irrigate their fields, bringing great vitality and beautiful days:

Praise you, Nile, you gush from the earth,

You are here to make Egypt prosperous! ……

You irrigated the land created by God,

In order to make all the creatures in the world happy ...

It created barley and wheat,

Let the temple be full of festive atmosphere.

……

People are so happy,

I can't shut my mouth.

It brings food and abundant food,

It creates all the beautiful things. ...

As for the religious philosophy poetry in ancient Egypt, the most famous one is the dialogue between the disappointed and their souls, which is considered as one of the highest achievements of ancient Egyptian poetry. This poem says:

Death stands before me today,

Like signs of recovery,

It's like getting rid of a disease ...

Death stands before me today,

Like the fragrance of lotus,

I like to indulge in the misty and rainy shore ...

Death stands before me today,

Like a lost storm,

Like a wanderer returning to his hometown from afar. ...

Death stands before me today,

Like a prisoner who has been imprisoned for many years,

Eager to see the walls of the house.

The hero compares death to the negative world-weariness expressed in the words of human happiness, which is obviously the idea of some people in the upper class. However, this poem also exposes social injustice and gives a voice of resistance. This is very rare in ancient Egyptian long poems. It is the reflection of social contradictions and class struggles in literary creation during the period of the Central Kingdom.