Editing Maat (section)

=== In ancient Egyptian texts ===
The Egyptian elite learned how to be part of the elite class through instructions text, such as ''[[The Maxims of Ptahhotep|The Instructions of Ptahhotep]],'' that used ''Maat'' as the basis of concrete principles and guidelines for effective rhetoric. A passage from ''Ptahhotep'' presents Maat as instruction:

{{poemquote|
Be generous as long as you live
What leaves the storehouse does not return;
It is the food to be shared which is coveted,
One whose belly is empty is an accuser;
One deprived becomes an opponent,
Don't have him for a neighbor.
Kindness is a man's memorial
For the years after the function.{{sfnp|Lipson|2004|p=82-83}} }}

Another passage emphasizes the importance of Maat and how wisdom was also to be found among the women at the grindstones.{{sfnp|Simpson|2003|pp=129-131}}

The lesson learned through ''Maat'' here is beneficence: the reader is advised to be benevolent and kind. An even stronger argument is being made – if you do not feed people, they will become unruly; on the other hand, if you take care of your people, they will take care of your memorial or tomb{{sfnp|Lipson|2004|p=83}} The excerpt from ''Phahhotep'' employs ''Maat'' to teach the reader how to be a more effective king. The Tale of [[The Eloquent Peasant]] is an extended discourse on the nature of Maat{{sfnp|Allen|2015|p=234}} in which an officer under the direction of the King is described as taking the wealth of a nobleman and giving it to a poor man he had abused.{{sfnp|Allen|2015|p=329}} Another text describes how the divine King:

{{poemquote|
educates the ignorant to wisdom, 
and those who are unloved become as those who are loved. 
He causes the lesser folk to emulate the great, 
the last become as the first. 
He who was lacking possessions is (now) the possessor of riches.{{sfnp|Simpson|2003|pp=176-177}} }}