In November 2013, on the occasion of the Sixth Assembly of the Buddhist Association of Hunan, Shenghui (1951-), the influential abbot of the Nanputuo monastery, gave a speech entitled "The Chinese dream is also the dream of Buddhism," hoping a concrete commitment of Buddhist circles for the realization of the national dream. Only a few months had passed since Xi Jinping's proclamation of the political line of the dream, that on the day of his election (April 2015), the President of the Buddhist Association of China Xuecheng (1966-) reaffirmed the profound unity between Buddhist values and the principles of the "Chinese dream" and invited all Buddhists to contribute to its realization. He was linking it to the remarkable resurgence of China and the development of the country's cultural soft power.
In its official expressions, Buddhism today represents the future in the political and propaganda terms of the "Chinese dream." The slogan of the dream places Buddhism in the wake of government policies in order to derive the maximum possible benefit by reaffirming the unity of intentions and views with the state authorities. The enthusiastic adherence of a part of the Buddhist world to the idea of the 'new silk road' as part of the One Belt One Road policy. The Buddhist world's appropriation of the concept of dreams is not so groundless. That view of Buddhism developed during the first half of the century was centered on the need for clergy involvement in worldly affairs. To contribute to realizing the "Chinese dream," the religious must get closer to external society. However, the objective to be achieved is not exclusively the concrete social commitment of nuns and monks. If this is true for the present, the future is outlined as something more ambitious, in which, for Chinese Buddhists, the 'dream' seems to merge with the idea of "pure land among men.
