Chou Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Earth (tǔ) Entry: Ba Kangxi strokes: 10 Page 229, Entry 10 According to the Collection of Rhymes (Jiyun), pronounced bei. A dam for retaining water. People today refer to earthen dams that block water as ba. Also, according to the Broad Rhymes (Guangyun) and the Collection of Rhymes (Jiyun), pronounced ba. People in Sichuan refer to flat land as ba. In the poems of Huang Tingjian, it is written: Your family has ice eggplants the color of white silver, far superior to the purple ones in the ba. Also written in the variant form ba.