According to Huang Wen-po, an ethnologist who has written extensively on beliefs regarding the afterlife, "They spin the shui zang in order to help the spirits of the drowned people come up out of the water." Shui zang might be called life jackets for ghosts, for they are mainly used in rites aimed at getting ghosts into paradise.
「轉動水，就是要讓淹死的鬼魂藉著水，自水中升起，主要用來超渡溺死者，可以說是水鬼的救生圈。」