Abstract: After exploring the “knowledge-power” relationship, Foucault shifted his focus to the ethical subject and advocated an ethics of survival. Wang Yangming's theory of work also contains a large number of survival ethical ideas, and the two have certain similarities. Comparing Foucault's ethics of survival with Wang Yangming's work theory, it can be found that both propose a theory of cultivation with characteristics of practicality, knowledge, subjectivity and spirituality. However, these two ethical ideas, which are based on the Western philosophy of subject-object dichotomy and the Chinese philosophy of the unity of heaven and man, have three levels of difference: the subject first and the object, the individual and the society, and the realm of the divine and the realm of heaven and earth. The theory of Yang Ming Wujing covers both Foucault's personal ethical aspirations and the pursuit of the unity of heaven and earth, and is an important reference for the development of contemporary Western ethics.

Key words: Michel Foucault, Wang Yangming, Work Theory, Ethics of Survival