The inscription consists of three graphs placed within a yaxing: the character zi (son), and pictographs of a stone axe and a tiger.
Compare the jia of very similar form discovered near Anyang, Henan province dated to the late Shang dynasty and now in the collection of the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji, vol. 3, Beijing, 1997, pl. 52. Unlike the present jia, the excavated example has a band of dragons cast around the shoulder.