The inscription on the back of the aureole may be translated as, “A figure of Buddha respectfully made by Li Hua of Changyi [in] the second year of Shi ping (corresponding to AD 507).”
A smaller (2 7/16 in.) jade figure of a Buddha, extremely worn, but also with an inscription on the back of the pointed aureole incorporating the name of a donor (not legible) and a cyclical date corresponding to AD 484, from the collection of D. Y. Wu, Tianjin, is illustrated by A. Salmony in Chinese Jade of Ancient China, Berkeley, 1938, pl. LXX, figs. 3-4. Also illustrated, pl. LXX, fig. 2, is another small (1 7/8 in.) jade figure of standing Buddha backed by a leaf-shaped aureole, but not inscribed, which is dated by Salmony to the Three Kingdoms-Six Dynasties period. Originally in the collection of W. Burchard, London, this figure is now in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C. (acc. No. S987.742). See, also, another small (4.2 cm.) jade figure of Buddha backed by a flame-shaped aureole, inscribed with a date corresponding to AD 869, in the Hangzhou History Museum, illustrated in Hangzhou guyu (Ancient Jade of Hangzhou), Beijing, 2003, p. 104, no. 107.