Lsapiential literature appeared in Egypt as early as the 3rd millennium BC in the form of teachings from a father to his son. It is about learning to live in accordance with the fundamental notion of existence in ancient Egypt: Ma'at.
The originality of Egyptian thought in the 3rd millennium BC is to conceive of life conforming to Ma'at as an object of learning, based on the experience of great ancestors, and not as a revealed divine law. Thus the first to dictate his "teaching", according to tradition, is the famous Imhotep (around 2660 BC), the inventor of monumental stone architecture, the builder of the step pyramid of King Djoser (3rd dynasty) in Saqqara.
The teaching of Ptahhotep is presented as a complete text, known from later copies. The most complete is that of the Papyrus Prisse (Paris, Bibl. Nat. De France) which dates from the 12th dynasty (approx. 1990-1785 BC). It perfectly illustrates the mentality of the masters of wisdom of Egypt from the 3rd millennium BC.
MAXIME 1:
Of humility and the discovery of perfect words.
And he said to his son, Let not your heart be vain because of what you know; take counsel with the ignorant as well as with the scientist, for one does not reach the limits of art, and there is no artisan who has acquired perfection. A perfect word is more hidden than the green stone; yet it is found near the maids who work on the millstone.
MAXIME 2:
The art of debating with a superior.
If you meet a debater in action, who directs his heart and is more skillful than you, bend your arms and curve your back; do not know your heart against him because you will not match him. May you lower the one who expresses himself badly by not opposing him when he acts; This is how he will be designated as ignorant as soon as your heart has suppressed its overabundance.
MAXIME 3: