死刑乃剝奪犯罪行為人生命法益之刑罰，為所有刑罰種類中最嚴厲者。自古以來，即為許多國家所援用，可見此一刑罰自有其存在價值。 然而隨著人類思想之變遷，尤其是十八世紀以降，人權思想之發展運帶地使到許多學者開始思考執行死刑合不合時宜。於是死刑制度之存廢，遂由宗教問題，一變而為社會問題，進而成為刑法上論爭之焦點。本不對不擬重複討論彼此爭議點，僅想從荀子的刑罰觀點來試探刑存廢的可能。 由於死刑存廢關乎人的生命觀，即生命價值之認肯。各方論辯又多各有各的考量。因此至今仍莫衷一是。而我之所以覺得可從荀子「禮」之思想進行討論，一則是因荀子常禮法連用，且曾云：「治之經，禮與型，君子以修百性寧，明德慎罰，國家既治，四海平。」〈成相〉卻仍堅定禮制的不可替代性；一則道德建設之目的是在揚善，法制建設之目的是抑惡；以刑輔德本為立政之準則，若僅以「刑」論「法」， 以「抑惡」作為「揚善」的先決條件，那便是本末倒置；必將全面失去對人性尊嚴之關注。故而，筆者透過對禮、法、刑的關係，試推論荀子可能的答案。

Capital punishment, the strictest penalty, is that the government takes away the criminal’s life, who is the citizen with the legal rights in the country. Many governments have executed the criminals since the ancients times; therefore, it has the value and important reasons for preserving the death penalty. Since human beings’ thoughts changed, especially form the 18th century, the development of the human rights has been making the execution of capital punishment be evaluated and negotiated as an appropriate punishment or not. The abolishment or preserve of capital punishment, which is the focus of argument in the legalism, has turned into a social problem instead of a religious problem. This study attempts to discuss the possibility of abolishing or preserving capital punishment form Xunzi’s points of view instead of repeating the preceding controversies. The abolishment or preserve of capital punishment is related to the acknowledgement of legal rights for human life that is the value of life. Different points of view revealing from various debates and negotiations have difficulty resulting in the one and only conclusion. The discussion of this study would be focused on the basis of Xunzi’s thought “ritual”. First, Xunzi always connects legalism with ritual and insists no substitute for ritual. He said,「The principles of governing a country must be based on creating the rituals and instituting laws. The sages and gentlemen can carry them out in order to deserve honor, the common people think they have the correct ways to follow. People comprehend the moral practice and follow the rules to avoid being punished. If the country is well controlled in the way, the world will be always in peace.」(成相) Second, settings on the moral principles is to honor and express people’s good; the establishment of the laws is to remove the evil people from society. The moral principles assisted with the laws can build the standard of managing a country. If the “punishment” and “removing the evil” are considered ahead of “the laws” and “the honor of good”, people have no idea of the correct ways to follow, and completely lose the concern for the respect of human nature. Viewing the connection of “ritual”, “legalism” and “punishment”, I try to analyze and integrate Xunzi’s perspective for capital punishment.