Only rarely in the course of all that time did people turn against this strict conformity.

在这整个漫长的时期中人们只对这种严格的老一套反对过两次。

Once was shortly after the reign of King Cheops, about 2,100 BC, when the people tried to change everything.

一次，是在国王齐阿普斯之后不久，大约在公元前2100年，臣民们曾经试图改变一切。

They rose up in rebellion against the pharaoh, killed his ministers, and dragged the mummies from their tombs.

他们起来反抗法老，打死他的监管人员并把木乃伊从墓穴里拉走。

'Those who formerly didn't even own sandals now hold treasures, and those who once wore precious robes go about in rags,' the ancient papyrus tells us.

"从前连便鞋也没有的人，现在有了珍宝；从前穿漂亮衣服的人，现在衣衫褴褛，" 一卷古老的莎草纸这样记述。

The land is turning like a potter's wheel.

国家像一个陶工转盘那样旋转。

But it did not last long, and soon everything was as strict as before. If not more so.

但是这种情况持续得不是很久，不久便又一切照旧，也许法老的统治比先前更残酷。

On another occasion it was the pharaoh himself who tried to change everything.

第二次是一位法老自己试图改变一切。

Akhenaton was a remarkable man who lived around 1,370 BC.

这个法老叫阿肯纳顿，他生活在公元前1370年左右，是个怪人。

He had no time for the Egyptian religion, with its many gods and its mysterious rituals.

他觉得埃及人的信仰连同其许多的神和那些神秘的习俗都不足信。

'There is only one God,' he taught his people, 'and that is the Sun, through whose rays all is created and all sustained. To Him alone you must pray. '

" 只有一位神，"他这样教导他的民众，"这就是太阳，太阳的光芒创造一切并维护一切。你们只可以向太阳祈祷。"