破四旧”期间，我患牙病，医生说臼齿磨损厉害，建议做套，罩住臼齿；套最好用金制，因金的硬度最适合与牙结合，且耐久。我觉得金牙太丑，医生说那是臼齿上的罩，根本看不见。于是决定用金。但哪里去找金？当时金子不是商品，且禁止买卖，“破四旧”将家家户户的金银珠宝抄尽，民间已与黄金绝缘。

　　During the early years of the Cultural Revolution, I had a tooth problem. The dentist told me one of my molars was badly decayed and suggested I have a crown fitted, most preferably a gold one, because the hardness of gold is similar to that of enamel and would fit it well. I was afraid it would look ugly. However, the dentist assured me that nobody would see it since it was on one of the back teeth. So gold was chosen as the material, but where to find the precious metal at that time of political turmoil? Gold transaction was then forbidden on the market. And to make things worse, gold products along with jewelry were all being searched and looted by the Red Guards in the 'Destruction of the Four Olds' campaign1. No one in mainland China had access to even a single ounce of gold.

　　幸而，我的一位入了泰国国籍的老同窗要返国探亲，他便特意戴了一个大大的金戒指解决了我的治牙问题。感谢医生的精心设计、制作，这金牙罩保护了我的病牙，让我平安度过了能吃食的几十个春秋，以为一劳永逸了。然而，竟然发现它日渐耗损，金子也衰老了！今天金子不稀罕，但那一只假牙确是我半辈子的保卫者，而它却比我先坏，令人感伤。世间没有一劳永逸的安全。但人们竭力追求永逸和永恒，筑长城、造金字塔、建地下宫……都为了保护权力及掌权者的尸身不朽，待复活。

　　Fortunately, an old classmate of mine, a Thai-Chinese, was planning a trip home and promised to bring me a gold ring by wearing it on his finger when going through customs. That really was an ingenious solution to my tooth crowning problem! Using the melted gold as raw material the doctor prepared the crown with great care and superb skill. Protected by the well-fit crown, I was able to eat and chew with much ease for several decades. I thought the crown would keep good forever, but, to my dismay, gold too proved to be subject to wear and tear like all other things. Now gold is no longer a rarity, but back at that time gold was very hard to get and the gold ring-turned-crown was meant to save me from dental trouble for the rest of my life, so the fact that it was aging even faster than I was actually made me quite sad and sentimental. I came to understand that nothing in this world will last for good. However, people still spare no effort to pursue ease and permanence. The Great Wall, the Pyramids, the underground palaces, all these were built in an attempt to eternalize power or to preserve corpses until they can be restored to life someday.

　　木、石、钢铁……一切的一切都扛不住岁月的消蚀，地震、海啸，大宇宙一次次嘲弄人类的渺小。恐龙的灭绝，庞贝的遗址，早揭示了人类及任何生物都挡不住宇宙之变幻。聪明的人类用科学来自救，为救自身却又加速毁灭自身，首先，自身的超量繁殖早已泛滥成灾。毁灭与再生是不可抗拒的规律，人类永远探不尽宇宙之谜。夏夜，满天美丽的星星，老祖母为此讲的故事依旧没变，牛郎织女永葆青春，鹊桥也永不断裂。然而，老祖母不知遥远的微小星星可能是大大的太阳，或大于太阳，我们的太阳也并不因后羿已死去而永远安逸。人类发觉必须保护地球的体温了，但谁又能阻止又一次冰河期或火山期的爆发。到木星去，也只才出得庭前三五步。杞人真超前，他预感忧天，是神异的先知者。

　　Wood, stone, iron and steel, none of them can resist the erosion of time; earthquakes, tsunami and other natural disasters time and again mock the insignificance of mankind. The extinction of the dinosaurs, the tragic fate of Pompeii, all these are evidence that neither men nor animals can fend off the changes of the universe. To save themselves, man cleverly resorts to science, yet in doing so they only speed up the process of self-destruction. To top it all, over-multiplication of the human species has already brought disastrous consequences. Destruction and regeneration are irresistible laws of Nature, and the universe still remains a myth to men no matter how hard they endeavor to explore into it. Looking up at the beautiful stars on a summer night, grandmothers have long been telling the same story about the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid2: their romance has always remained fresh and the magpies have never failed to build a bridge for their yearly meeting. But grandmothers don't know the tiny stars in the distant sky may turn out to be as large as or even larger than the sun, and that our sun will not shine steadily for ever, even though Houyi3 is long dead. Mankind has realized that we must keep the earth's temperature from rising, but who can prevent a volcano from erupting again or stop the coming of another glacial period? Even if we can flee to Jupiter, we're still not very far from danger, like only being a few yards from a falling house. In a Chinese legend, someone in the State of Qi feared that the sky would someday fall. That man, to me, is a wise prophet having the presentiment that Nature may spell doom to man.

　　一个假牙的消蚀，等同地球的变质，暗示宇宙的颤栗。人类的苦难还在后头，惟望科学救命，人之族天长地久！

　　The wearing-away of my tooth crown is a warning sign equal to that of the deterioration of the earth or a tremor of the universe. Disasters we humans have to endure are yet to come. May science provide for our salvation and the human race live as long as the universe lasts!