The rake, patou a farming tool, was not used broadly as a weapon until  the Ming Dynasty. There are a few different types of rakes, including ba, pa, dangba, dang, chan, yueyachan and macha.

       Dangba is more often used than other kinds of rakes. It was invented to defend against the pirates in the Ming Dynasty. The warrior carrying dangba was equipped with thirty gunpowder-based arrows. When enemies were in the distance, the bow of the dangba could be used as the base to shoot the arrows from. When the enemies got closer, the dangba could prick them. When the bayonet fighting started, it could suppress the opponents?weapons. So dangba was a very powerful invention. General Ci Jiguang of the Ming in his book Lianbing Shihji said that dangba is 8 chih long (3 chih = 1 meter). It can prick and shield, and is very suitable to be used on horseback. The Wubei Jhih by Mao Yuanyi described this weapon in detail.

       In the book Bingjhang Ji by Wang Jhuo in the Cing Dynasty, there are two kinds of ba; one is called tieba, the iron rake, the other is called muba, the wood rake. The difference between these two weapons is that the head of the iron rake, including the bow and teeth, is made of steel, but the wood rake has a wooden bow with iron teeth. According to the description, the ba used in the Cing Dynasty was more like a farm tool than a weapon. The Cing also had some weapons used in the lyuying military camps belonging to the ba family including fongchihdang, wuchihdang, yueyaba and tongtianba.

       Guo Cian, the protagonist of the wusia novel, Chunjiang Wanlicing by Siao Yi, uses the weapon, fongchihdang. It is about one meter long with purple color, four teeth, and sharp curved blades.

       The other weapon belonging to this family is called the pa. It is very similar to the farm tool and is usually used in battles involving boats. It can defend as well as strike. In the well-know novel Siyou Ji, the pa, which the pig character Jhu Bajie uses, has nine teeth.