A worker put the treasure box to its original place on the ridge center of the roof of the Hall of Supereme Harmony in the Forbidden City on September 5, 2007. (Photo: the first.cn)

A treasure box, once used to ward off evils and avert misfortune, returned to its rightful place on the ridge center of the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most important building in the Forbidden City, as part of the current renovation work.

Amid a ceremony practiced according to old rules, the gold-plated treasure box was restored to the "dragon gate", the geometric center of the ridge of the huge roof of the magnificent Hall of Supreme Harmony, Beijing News reported.

The treasure box has been absent from the rooftop for dozens of years, after it was taken down and put into a warehouse during a previous overhaul many years ago.

Jin Rongkui, vice-curator of the Palace Museum, said that ancient people would hold a ceremony each time such a treasure box is placed on an important building, and that this was the first time that the Palace Museum has hosted such a ceremony.

The purpose of the ceremony, Jin explained, is not only to protect the ancient architecture itself, but also to demonstrate the traditional cultural concepts and ideology embedded in ancient architecture, as they are equally important.

For ancient Chinese people, it is traditional to put a treasure box on the ridge center of the roof of a building upon completion, something like a crowning ceremony, in order to ward off evil spirits. Inside the treasure box, ritual items, such as red silk, coin, grain, and silver/gold ware are put in.

A historic document handed down from the early Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) records that, inside the treasure box of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there were coins, gold, silver, copper, iron, tin ingots and plates, as well as precious stones in five different colors, and five Confucian Classics.

Many years have passed, and some of the precious "stuffing" got lost, so that there are only some ingots remaining - only the Classics and the silk are left today. To keep the old tradition abreast with time, a modern document, recording the details of this major repair work, was put inside the treasure box, along with the remaining "stuffing."

The current repair work of the Hall of Supreme Harmony was started in 2006, and is expected to be finished before the Beijing Olympics.

(CRI.cn September 12, 2007)