Religious and philosophical discourse concerning a soul and a body in the Liu Song period (420-479 ad) (based upon the essay of Buddhist-layman Zheng Xianzhi «The discourses on immorality of soul»)

The article describes a little-known and little-studied Chinese buddhist essay «Shen bu mie lun» written by a Buddhist thinker and high-ranking official of Eastern Jin and Liu Song dynasties named Zheng Xianzhi (郑 鲜 之 364-427 AD.). In this essay was reflected the court religious and philosophical controversy of Southern and Northern Dynasties period around Sino-Buddhist thesis «of the immortality of the soul» (shen bu mie lun 神不灭论).The author proposed the reconstruction of the conceptual system of the researched essays, as well as the approximate date of the creation of «Shen bu mie lun». It was found that the «Shen bu mie lun» was written under the influence of the Chinese Taoist Kuanxue teaching (玄学《mysterious teaching»). The translation of the main theses of essay is given.