--- title: Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Chinese civilisation grew along two great rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em… # Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall Lesson 9 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/0/) — Chinese civilisation grew along two great rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/1/) — The Yellow River's floods brought rich soil but also terrible disasters. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/2/) — China was ruled by dynasties, families passing power from parent to child, like a football club owned by one family for generations. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/3/) — People believed Heaven gave a good ruler the right to rule, and took it away when floods, famine and rebellion came. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/4/) — In 221 BC the king of Qin conquered all the warring kingdoms and called himself the First Emperor. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/5/) — He was buried with about 8,000 life-size clay soldiers, each with a different face. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/6/) — The Great Wall is not one wall but many, built over 2,000 years against horse-riding raiders from the north. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/7/) — And no, you cannot see it from the Moon: it is very long but far too narrow. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/8/) — Chinese civilisation grew up along the Yellow River and the Yangtze, and the Yellow River's floods brought rich soil but also terrible disasters. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/9/) — China was ruled by dynasties, families whose rule passed from parent to child, such as the Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Ming. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/10/) — Shang kings, over 3,000 years ago, asked their ancestors questions by heating bones and shells until they cracked, then wrote on them; these oracle bones hold the oldest Chinese writing known. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/11/) — The Chinese believed Heaven gave a good ruler the right to rule, the Mandate of Heaven, and that floods, famine and rebellion showed a ruler had lost it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/12/) — In 221 BC the king of Qin conquered all the warring kingdoms and called himself Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor; the English name China may come from Qin. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/13/) — The First Emperor was buried with about 8,000 life-size clay soldiers, horses and chariots, the Terracotta Army, each soldier with a different face, probably to guard him after death. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/14/) — Farmers digging a well found the Terracotta Army in 1974. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/15/) — The Great Wall is many walls built over 2,000 years to keep out horse-riding raiders from the north, and most of the stone wall visited today was built by the Ming dynasty about 500 years ago. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/18/) — The Han dynasty ruled for about 400 years, and most Chinese people still call themselves the Han people. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/19/) — For centuries Chinese officials were chosen by hard written exams on classic books, not only by birth. - ← previous: [Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/) - next →: [Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)