Appearing to understand Chinese dynasty (7)
I believe the answer is:
seeming
'appearing' is the definition.
('seem' can be a synonym of 'appear')
'understand chinese dynasty' is the wordplay.
'understand' becomes 'see' (synonyms).
'chinese dynasty' becomes 'ming' (historical Chinese dynasty).
'see'+'ming'='SEEMING'
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for seeming that I've seen before include "so-called" , "Ostensible" , "Specious" , "Apparent" , "Appearing as such, but not necessarily so" .)