English: XVI.

The 黎 Le Dynasty. - 1428-1785. 1st King. - 太祖 THAI-TO. 1428-1437. - The successful 黎利 LE-LOI was the leader of the revolt against Chinese rule. He expelled the invading army from the country, and, on the 15th day of the 4th moon of 1428, proclaimed himself king in 河內 Ha-noi, giving rise to the dynasty which governed Annam for a long period. The reign of LE-LOl was comparatively a quiet one, and all his army had to do was to subdue some wild tribes of 太原 Thai-nguyen and 復禮州 Phuc-le-chau. LE-LOI obtained investiture from the Emperor of China, by the payment of 50,000 tads of gold; he devised good administrative laws, which, however, were no sooner published than they were, unfortunately, altogether lost sight of.

No. 51. (Barker: 29.1-29.5) Obverse: 順天元寶 Thuan-thien-nguyen-bao. Reverse: plain. Copper coin issued by King 太祖 THAI-TO, founder of the 黎 LE Dynasty. The political convulsions which disturbed Annam at the beginning of the fifteenth century, prevented the casting of any legal coin by the last seven kings of the 陳 TRAN Dynasty. But from the date of the accession to power of the Le family there was a manifest improvement in the manufacture of coins; excellent metal was used for the casting, and the work is equal to the best specimens of coins circulating in China at that time.

2nd King. - 太宗 THAI-TONG. 1434-1443. The reign of Prince 元龍 NGUYEN-LONG, younger son of LE-LOI, was a peaceful one. Ho contributed materially to the development of the interests of the country, but made several mistakes in his policy, one of the greatest being the sentence of death passed upon General 黎察 LE-SAT, a colleague of LE-LOI. In 1437 he obtained investiture from the Emperor of China, receiving a gold seal in the form of a camel, weighting one hundred taels.