<p>I changed my topic 3 days ago so it was pretty urgent. My first language is not English so please tell me the grammatical mistakes in my essay. Thank you very much and this will really save my life!</p>
<p>The topic is No.4 to describe a historical figure and his influence.</p>
<p>This is my essay:</p>
<p>Every small step of life such as a trip could leave significant influence on the life, to say nothing of the first time to read a 500-page biography of a historical figure. The biography of Yongzheng Emperor, who was the fourth emperor of Qing Dynasty who made the empire economically prosperous and laid the foundation of the last golden age during the feudal China, was the first historical figure I thoroughly researched.</p>
<p>Everyone has childhood without any thoughts of pressure, danger and conspiracy, just like a blank paper, yet as the blank paper is written with black ink, the childhood ends. In the other words, children view thing simply with the either black or white method, while a mature person analyzes things from different perspectives. A completely different view of the world and the end of childhood are what Yongzheng gave to me.</p>
<p>As a debatable person and ruler, Yongzheng has always been a mystery and a controversial topic of Chinese history. For example, did he usurp the throne? Did some of his policies such as establishing the Grand Council bring positive or negative effects on China? There are no affirmations of these questions. It is reasonable for the adults that a historical figure, especially a politician or a ruler, is impossible to be commented as a good person like Cinderella or a bad person like the Big Bad Wolf. But when I first knew Yongzheng at the age of 11, faced the complexity of the figure, I was like an explorer in a tropical rainforest. Everything contradictory about him flooded my brain out of its acceptable range: he killed his brothers and uncles just for the crown, but he has been respected through centuries. Why was he valued as the most significant contributor of Qing Dynasty even though he initiated the literary inquisitions? I had no ideas. In my immature mind, I did not understand the conflicting facts, but since then, I began to realize that the world might not be as simple as I thought. </p>
<p>Ironically, though lookers-on see more than players, Yongzheng, as a player, saw much more than I, as a looker-on, did. In 1735, a few months before he died, the architect who designed Yongzhengs mausoleum asked him what was the content of the epitaph. He said calmly, No gold is completely pure, and no man is perfect (Every man has his faults in English). Leave the tombstone blank and let the later generations comment on me. My black-and-white world has been broken since then because I finally knew that everyone has faults and contributions, and the faults and contributions cannot replace each other. Instead, both of them are the components of all the characters. Contradictions are more common than harmonies. I must adapt to them. In the other words, my childhood has been sentenced to death. </p>
<p>Getting out of childhood is a significant step of life, but it can be either pleasant or painful. I have gained the skill to view things from a wiser and more comprehensive way, but I have had to make decisions among contradictory choices; I have known more about the society and the world, but the ugly parts have appeared in front of me as well. Is that good or bad? Again, I cant answer with an absolute judgment. But Sherlock Holmes comment about the First World War in the end of His Last Bow could be my answer: The east wind is cold and bitter, but a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine after the storm. Yongzheng is like the storm that cleared my happy memories as a child, but I have become a wiser, more capable person because of him.</p>