論及「禮義」關係，先秦儒學有兩大支脈，一是孟子，即強調道德內在根源，主張性善論的四端之心，禮義成為「羞惡之心」、「是非之心」的內在形上道德準則，屬內聖之學。一是荀子，著重外在統治秩序原理，主張性惡的禮義觀，禮義具有知情意主體的道德應用原則，實兼具內聖與外王之學。荀子自宋儒道統觀建立後，被排除於道統外，成為不入主流的儒家，甚至被編入法家系統。實則，今日探討論禮義關係在民主政治上的運用，荀子比孟子還豐富。因此，本文擬從荀子禮義論，探索其如何運用於今日民主政治上。並與孟子思想相較，輔以西方德行倫理的論述，若能取長補短，充分把禮義關係的精神運用到民主政治中，或可調劑今日民主政治的諸多亂象。

When it comes to the relation between courtesy and righteousness, there are two major schools in Pre-Qin Confucianism. One school is dominated by Mencius, stressing intrinsic source of morality and “Four-terminal Heart” which is advocating doctrine of good human nature. Courtesy and righteousness has become intrinsic and metaphysical moral criterion of “sense of shame and hate” and “sense of right and wrong”. It belongs to self-cultivation. The other school is centered on Hsun Tzu, emphasizing on the principle of external governing order, advocating inherent vice, and courtesy and righteousness are just the principle of moral application of the emotion, volition and intellectual subject. It belongs to inner and outside morality. Since the establishment of Confucianism orthodoxy in Song Dynasty, Hsun Tzu was expelled from it and became non-mainstreamed Confucianism, even incorporated into the Legalist School. In fact, Hsun Tzu outperformed Mencius in terms of the application of relation between courtesy and righteousness to democracy and politics we discuss now. Therefore, this research intends to probe into the Courtesy and Righteousness Theory advocated by Hsun Tzu that has drawn less attention, and explores how it is applied to the democracy and politics today. In this research, the thoughts of Hsun Tzu and Mencius are compared and supplemented by Western Virtue Ethics. If the strengths can be learned from to offset the weaknesses and the spirit of courtesy and righteousness, coupled with Confucian spirit, can be applied to modern democracy and politics, the chaos in modern democracy and politics might be reconciled.