1392, a short distance from the capital at Shuri. These Chinese would, over the ensuing decades and centuries, intermarry with the local Okinawans; Kumemura grew into a center of Chinese studies, and its Chinese inhabitants and their descendants served the kingdom as diplomats, interpreters, and related roles. Another important development introduced by Satto was the creation of the post of Ō-shō (王相), or King's Assistant. Though direct monarchical rule remained important and powerful in Okinawa for at least a few generations, this marked the beginnings of a bureaucracy that gradually replaced the chief's direct rule, drafting and implementing policy in his name. Satto died in 1395, and was succeeded by his son Bunei. Missions sent to Nanjing announced the chief's death, and formally requested investiture for his successor. The "Chūzan Seikan" an official history book written by Haneji Chōshū in the 1650s, cites Satto's death as an example of tentō (天道), a concept closely related to the Confucian Mandate of Heaven. Though he describes Satto as a good chief overall, Shō accuses him of giving in to luxurious temptations and of losing the proper degree of humility; thus, Shō explains, Satto was guided by tentō to touch a venomous snake in his sleep and to be killed. See also Imperial Chinese missions to the Ryukyu Kingdom Notes References Kerr, George H. (1965). Okinawa, the History of an Island People. Rutland, Vermont: C.E. Tuttle Co. OCLC 39242121 Smits, Gregory. (1999). Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ; OCLC 39633631 (2002). . Naha: Okinawa Bunka-sha. OCLC 170411659 (1997 ed.) Suganuma, Unryu. (2000). Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations: Irredentism and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ; ; OCLC 170955369 Kings of Ryūkyū 1321 births 1395 deaths 14th-century Ryukyuan people