(14281788) Greatest and longest-lasting dynasty of traditional Vietnam.
Its founder, Le Loi , drove the Chinese out of Vietnam and began the process of recovering the southern portion of the region from the kingdom of Champa . In 1471 the dynasty's greatest ruler, Le Thanh Tong (d. 1497), completed that work. He divided the country into provinces patterned on the Chinese model and established a triennial Confucian civil-service examination. After 1533 the Le rulers were only theoretically supreme, real power being held by the Trinh and Nguyen families. In 1771 a peasant uprising toppled the dynasty.