George Bush and Condi Rice should read Mencius, and maybe even the Tao Te Ching.  I say this because it seems that there has been a change in US strategy toward North Korea, a welcome change away from the impossible idea of "regime change" and toward a more serious engagement and negotiation.  But Bush and Rice still can’t bring themselves to publicly acknowledge that the US will have to give NK something that it wants: a written security guarantee, a peace treaty perhaps, and some payoff to close down its nuclear program.  If they would just read Mencius, they might see that by giving the relatively weak NK what it wants, US power could be enhanced.

   In Book 2, chapter 3 of Mencius we find this passage"

Emperor Hsuan of Ch’i asked: "Is there a Way to foster good relations with neighboring countries?"

"There is," replied Mencius.  "Only a person of great Humanity can use the large to serve the small…

"Whoever uses the large to serve the small delights in Heaven."

    An alternate translation is a bit clearer on the notion of "using the large to serve the small:

Only a loving man can serve the small when he is great.

    What Mencius is getting at here is this: the powerful can afford to serve the interests of the less powerful.  This is a matter of extending Humanity – the highest Confucian virtue – throughout the land, but it also is a matter of investing in a system of relations that will redound to the benefit of the strong.  That is why, in serving the small, the large  "delights in Heaven." ("Heaven" here does not have the remote transcendent meaning that we usually assign to it; rather, it connotes a general sense of destiny and fate. Delighting in Heaven suggests having good fortune).

    Post-WWII US foreign policy comes to mind here.  The most powerful country in the world, especially when considering both economic and military resources, the US allowed the "small" countries – in this case Europe and Japan – to rebuild in ways that discriminated against immediate US interests but forged a global system that clearly benefited the US in the long-run. 

     But Bush and Rice seem unable to grasp this idea in the case of NK.  They get too caught up in Pyongyang’s posturing and rhetorical fusillades. 

    And if Mencius’s reference to Humanity seems too soft for Bush and Rice, they can turn to the Tao Te Ching:

A great nation that puts itself below a small nation takes over the small nation. (61).