Wang Ci lived in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. He, a disicple of Wang Yang-Ming, believed in the conscience theory and advocated Wang Yang-Ming's theory the most. On the other side, because he approached conscience via emptiness, vacantliness, and insight, assertively laid the foundation on the innateness, and even promoted the unification of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, Wang's theory was brought into Buddhism and lost its true nature. In particular his perspective of innate conscience gave rise to the profligate way in which his followers behaved themselves at will and finally fell into rampant Zen. Wang Ci's thought was thereupon abandoned by othodoxical scholars, who then regressed to Zhu Xi's doctrine.