engineering

Niushoushan

Niushoushan is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Niushoushan rather than just read about it. In short: Niushou Mountain, or Niushoushan, located in Jiangning District of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China, is a low hill belonging to the southern branch of the western Ningzhen Hills. Its main peak stands at an elevation of 242.9 meters.

Key takeaways

Niushoushan belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Niushoushan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Niushoushan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Niushou Mountain, or Niushoushan, located in Jiangning District of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China, is a low hill belonging to the southern branch of the western Ningzhen Hills. Its main peak stands at an elevation of 242.9 meters. The mountain name literally means the "Ox Head Mountain" because the east and west peaks form the shape of two horns of an ox). The mountain derives its name from its twin peaks, which resemble the horns of an ox.It is also known as Tianque Mountain and is referred to as Niutou Mountain by locals. The park is newly developed and opened as a tourist attraction in 2014, but the location has been a Buddhist site since the Tang dynasty (618–907AD). However, the original temple was destroyed in the 1850s during the Taiping Rebellion. Since 2015, the palace has been the shrine for the world's only parietal relic of Buddha (the skull of Shakyamuni), making Niushoushan a sacred location for Buddhists. The relic was found in the Ashoka Pagoda in the underground palace of the Bao'en Temple (the former Changgan Temple of the Song dynasty) in Qinhuai District, Nanjing.

History

Year 317 Emperor Yuan of Jin, Sima Rui, crossed the Yangtze River and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty with its capital in Jiankang (modern-day Nanjing). He planned to construct a pair of ceremonial towers outside the southern gate, Xuanyang Gate (now Zhonghua Gate), as a symbol of imperial supremacy. However, Prime Minister Wang Dao, understanding the fledgling nature of the dynasty, advised against large-scale construction projects. Instead, he invited Emperor Yuan to gaze southward from Xuanyang Gate toward Niushou Mountain, where the two peaks stood majestically opposite each other. Taking advantage of the moment, Wang Dao persuaded the emperor, saying, "These are Heaven's Towers; why trouble to build new ones?" The emperor happily abandoned the construction plans and proclaimed Niushou Mountain as "Heaven's Towers."

Year 459 In the 3rd year of the Daming era of the Liu Song dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, Youqi Temple was established. It became one of the most prominent early temples among the "480 Temples of the Southern Dynasties."

Year 461 In the 5th year of the Daming era of Emperor Xiaowu of Liu Song, the monk Pizhi lived in a cave on the southern slope of the western peak of Niushou Mountain. According to legend, he "achieved enlightenment and ascended to immortality" in this cave. Hence, the cave became known as Pizhi Buddha Cave or Buddha Grotto Cave, and Niushou Mountain was briefly referred to as Xian Ku Mountain ("Immortal Grotto Mountain").

Year 503 In the 2nd year of the Tianjian era of the Liang dynasty, Sima Xu Du established the initial Buddha Grotto Temple (now Hongjue Temple) on the southern side of Niushou Mountain.

Year 643 In the 17th year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty, Dharma Master Farong, praised as the "Bodhidharma of the Eastern Summer," founded a meditation chamber in the northern rock of Youqi Temple. Following the teachings of the Fourth Patriarch Daoxin of Chan Buddhism, he established the Niu Tou Chan School. This marked the true Sinicization of Indian Chan Buddhism, making Niushou Mountain a significant origin of Chinese Chan Buddhismgs to disciples.

Year 943 The burial sites of Li Bian, the first emperor of the Southern Tang, and his empress Song, known as "Qinling," as well as the burial sites of Li Jing, the second emperor, and his empress Zhong, known as "Shunling," are collectively referred to as the Two Mausoleums of the Southern Tangzh：南唐二陵. Located on the southern slopes of Niushou Mountain, they are the largest imperial tombs of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and are now designated as national key cultural heritage sites.

Years 1436–1449 In the 8th year of the Xuande era of the Ming Dynasty, the renowned navigator Zheng He died on the west coast of India in Calicut and was granted burial at Niushou Mountain in Nanjing. During the Zhengtong era of the Ming Dynasty, Buddha Grotto Temple was renamed Hongjue Temple. It became one of the prominent Buddhist temples in Nanjing, subordinate to the Grand Bao'en Temple, and was among the eight great imperial temples of Ming Dynasty Nanjing.

Year 2010 After research and approval by religious and cultural authorities, as well as the Buddhist and cultural heritage communities, plans were finalized to construct an underground palace at the Niushou Mountain Heritage Park to enshrine the Buddha's parietal bone relic.

October 27, 2015 The grand ceremony to enshrine the Buddha's parietal bone relic (舍利) of Shakyamuni Buddha was held at Niushou Mountain in Nanjing. The Niushou Mountain Cultural Tourism Zone was simultaneously completed and officially opened to the public.

Attractions

Niushou Mountain is renowned for its breathtaking natural scenery, often praised as "Springtime Niushou." Rich in history and culture, it is a site of great significance: the location of Yue Fei's resistance against the Jin dynasty and the final resting place of Zheng He. It is also the birthplace and foundational site of the Niu Tou Chan School, an important lineage of Chinese Chan Buddhism with a profound spiritual legacy. As one of Nanjing's major cultural projects during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the Niushou Mountain Cultural Tourism Zone was developed around the theme of "permanently enshrining the world's most sacred Buddhist relic—the Buddha's parietal bone." The project is positioned as "a new global Buddhist cultural heritage site and a contemporary architectural marvel." By integrating ecological, cultural, and tourism resources, the zone aims to create three distinctive realms: ecology, culture, and leisure. Key landmarks and attractions at Niushou Mountain include:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Niushoushan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Niushoushan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Niushoushan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Niushoushan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Niushoushan

In research: Niushoushan appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Niushoushan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Niushoushan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2014 establishments in China, 2014 in Nanjing, Buddhist holy places in China, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Niushoushan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Niushoushan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Niushoushan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Niushoushan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Niushoushan in simple terms?

Why does Niushoushan matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Niushoushan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Niushoushan.