What is Tao?

Many people believed that Tao is Taoism. Tao is related to Taoism but it is not Taoism. Tao is also known as the path or way. In a life of a person, that are many tao waiting for him to walk, but he will choose the path he is willing to take. Either bad or good. In Japanese martial arts, title ended with the Japaneses' name DO which means Tao.

In Sun Tzu's Art of War, the first factor among the five factors was Tao. In this case, Tao refers to the agreement between the Sovereign and his people. In order for the sovereign to win the hearts of the people, he must go with the agreement of the people.

In the Three Strategy of Yellowstone Elder, the superior strategy stated that if the general or sovereign has the same likes as the masses, there is nothing he will not accomplish.

In Sima's Rules of War, Sima Ranju said that the Tao is about benevolence. "Neither contravening the seasons nor working the people to exhaustion, neither attacking a state in national mourning nor taking advantage of natural disaster, or not mobilize the army in either winter or summer, this is the mean of loving the people, both yours and your enemy's."

While in another different case, Sun Tzu's Art of War stated that the Tao of Warfare is about deception, this is stated in the first chapter of Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Therefore, there are many different types of Tao, all are not meant to be the same. For Lao Tzu said, "Tao is not real Tao, a name may not be the real name." Therefore, a path may not be the real path to victory. Good path may turn to bad path, things in the world will change over times, thus people does not use a single path to be successful, there maybe shortcuts or even long and difficult path. For "A thousand journeys beginning with one step."