Zhao hun, summoning the soul
On the merit-making altar the soul is called from the tablet to the front of the altar, and the chanting goes on until it has come.
Pronunciation zhào hún｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Zhao hun is third among the ten sections of merit-making, coming after the opening of the eyes and the invitation to the gods. The mourners kneel below the altar holding the censer; the master of the altar chants the name, the hour of death and the address the dead lived at, and chants until the soul has come.
There is no clock on that arrival. A line from the altar, an answer from below: answer together and the soul comes early. Only once it has come are the basin of water and the paper clothes of any use — which is why the summoning comes first and the bathing after, the two not to be reversed.
When you see it
On the merit-making altar, once in a service; even a single night cannot leave it out. Where the service runs three nights or seven, each night opens with this section as a matter of course.
Words easily confused
It is not jiao hun, the calling back of a frightened child’s soul. Zhao hun is a passage of the funeral altar. Nor is it the crossing of the bridge: one brings the soul to the altar, the other leads it over the bridge, one after the other.
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, merit-making: whose feast is it.
Same group: the bath on the altar, crossing the bridge.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026