It was encouraged that rice be weeded two or three times during its growing period (Liu 1991), and when weeding the paddies, it was easy to damage the rice and lose portions of it along with the weeds if one was not careful. In order to maintain the rice’s quality and output, it was widely accepted that hand-weeding be the dominant method, as although it was back-breaking labor, with farmers having to wade on their knees in the paddies to pluck the weeds, it ensured a more bountiful harvest, letting the farmer be more thorough between each weed and grain (Bray 1984). While many farmers used their bare hands to weed the paddies, it was a long-running practice for some to use carved-bamboo weeding claws worn on the tip of each finger, providing protection as well as sharpness useful for uprooting the weeds. Although not as common of a practice, it has also been documented that some farmers were skilled enough to stand upright in the paddies and weed with their toes while holding a staff to keep themselves steady. This way, the labor was not as (literally) back-breaking. (Liu 1991) (Bray 1984, 289-318)
(Bray, 1984, 315)