Mai shui, buying water
The son carries a coin to the stream, buys water with it, brings it home and washes the dead — the last time the family serves the parent.
Pronunciation mǎi shuǐ｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Take a bowl and some coins to the stream, burn incense and paper, drop the coins into the water and carry the water back. A little is dripped into the mouth of the dead, the rest used to wash the face and body. The whole thing is called mai shui mo shi — buying water to wash the corpse. The money is in the water, which is why it is called buying.
This sits before the coffin is laid. Only after it are the burial clothes changed and the body put in the coffin.
When you see it
After a death and before the body is coffined. Before this the son has already reported the death to the earth god, an act called bao di tou; the washing follows the water being carried back. The two come one upon the other, close together.
Words easily confused
Mai shui is washing the dead; bao di tou is reporting the death to the earth god. They are not one affair. Zuo gong de, the chanting by monks or priests, and zuo qi, the sacrifice every seventh day after the burial, fall outside this stretch altogether.
Custom in Chaoshan funerals; this page describes only, and neither endorses superstition nor urges anyone to follow it.
Read next: Funeral custom: from merit-making to the coffin leaving.
See also: Rites of life: the five thresholds side by side.
Same group: assuming mourning dress, reporting to the earth god, the seven-week rites.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026