Anyway, I have revised the mini-biography I wrote prior to starting this thread with knowledge outlined through discussion here, and with additional information found in Rafe de Crespigny's works.
I should also note that I can see clear differences between his duty and Liu Biao's (Wang Rui, for example, was responsible for accompanying Sun Jian on his military commissions—a very inspector-like job). I wonder if Liu Biao was originally carrying out Wang Rui's responsibilities and took advantage of the crumbling government to become a power in his own right? I see no mention of him ever having been promoted along the way.
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Wang Rui
Lived: AD ?–189
Wang Rui served the Han as Inspector of Jing Province (1). In AD 187 Wang Rui joined the Grand Administrator of Changsha, Sun Jian, to attack bandits in Lingling and Guiyang. Wang Rui was evidently a man of good gentry and background and as such he resented Sun Jian, who was born to a commoner, for his success and the honors that had been bestowed upon him, and for this reason Sun Jian bore a grudge. (2)
<blockquote>(1): Chen Shou in <i>Sanguozhi</i> refers to Wang Rui’s position as ‘Inspector of Jingzhou’. Later, Dong Zhuo appoints Liu Biao to the same position, replacing Wang Rui. Liu Biao’s responsibility is generally accepted to be ‘Governor of Jingzhou’, a position of authority quite unlike that of an inspector. This leads to some confusion. Pei Songzhi, quoting <i>Wulu</i>, refers to Wang Rui’s responsibility as ‘Governor of Jingzhou’. In any case, it is unlikely that either position would have afforded him authority to call for Cao Yin’s execution without first obtaining permission from the capital.
(2): de Crespigny, Rafe, <i>Generals of the South</i>, 106: “It was quite appropriate, and indeed formally necessary, that Wang Rui should have been with Sun Jian in the operations against the rebels outside Changsha. On the other hand, the function of an inspector in this situation was primarily to supervise the military action and prevent any individual commander from establishing a local military dominance. The real credit for the campaign had gone to Sun Jian, and this, together with his remarkable promotion to Grand Administrator and his subsequent enfeoffment as a marquis, caused jealousy and tension. Wang Rui, a man from good gentry family, presumably made some unguarded remark that a commandery would be better in the hands of trained and experienced administrators, while fighting men should act only as assistants. [<i>SGZ</i> Wu 1] Whatever the insult, Sun Jian remembered it.”</blockquote>Later, when provinces and commanderies were gathering troops to attack Dong Zhuo, Wang Rui and Sun Jian also raised troops. Wang Rui, however, had quarreled with Cao Yin, Grand Administrator of Wuling, and hence announced his intention to have him killed before setting out to the capital. (3)
<blockquote>(3): Wang Rui, apparently, slipped up and announced his intentions in public. <i>To Establish Peace</i> II 51 note #22.</blockquote>Cao Yin was alarmed by this and, thinking to turn Sun Jian’s arrival to his own advantage, forged a letter from the Itinerant Commissioner of Investigation and sent it to Sun Jian. The order cited various crimes and faults of Wang Rui and authorized Sun Jian to arrest him, execute him, and submit a report. As soon as Sun Jian received the report he mobilized his troops.
When Wang Rui heard an army was coming he surveyed them from a tower and dispatched a messenger to learn their intentions. Sun Jian’s vanguard explained that they had not been compensated properly and couldn’t even afford to buy clothing. Wang Rui, who did not yet know that Sun Jian was leading the troops, protested, “How could a governor be stingy to his men?” He opened his storehouses and asked the troops to enter the city so they could see for themselves that he was not withholding anything.
When the troops entered and came under Wang Rui’s tower he noticed Sun Jian. Shocked, he asked, “These troops are here to ask for reward. What are you, Prefect Sun, doing with them?” Sun Jian replied, “I have an imperial emissary’s decree calling for your execution.” Wang cried, “But what crime have I committed?” Sun Jian replied, “The crime of not knowing anything.” Wang Rui committed suicide by drinking wine with gold flakes (4).
<blockquote>(4): The golden flakes would be poisonous and thus the cause of death. As noted in de Crespigny, Rafe, <i>To Establish Peace</i> II 51-52, note #26, consumption of metal flakes or lumps was not an uncommon means of committing suicide in Chinese history, and is a tradition that even appears in recent centuries. <i>Zizhi tongjian</i> footnotes include commentary from Tao Hongjing who explains that some “raw gold” is poisonous until it has been refined through smelting. Still reading from de Crespigny’s notes, Tao’s remakrks are cited again in commentary to the section on Gold in <i>Bencao gangmu</i> 8, 3-4, which also quotes the eighth-century scholar Chen Cangqi, who tells of a poisonous raw gold found in the far south which resembled red and black gravel. For a highly detailed discussion, please reference <i>To Establish Peace</i> II, 52 note #26.</blockquote>From Sun Jian’s perspective this was a satisfactory outcome and the legitimacy of the decree was probably of no great concern. He could always claim that he believed it to be genuine and this also afforded him an opportunity to do away with Wang Rui. Not only was he able to bring closure to his private grudge but he also added Wang Rui’s soldiers to his own army. If Wang Rui was powerful enough to threaten the Grand Administrator [Cao Yin] he held the majority of troops in Wuling, and he may have had levies from other parts in the province. (5)
<blockquote>(5): Paraphrased from de Crespigny, Rafe, <i>Generals of the South</i>, 107.</blockquote>Chen Shou’s explanation in <i>Sanguozhi</i> reads simply, “Wang Rui, the Inspector of Jingzhou, never showed courtesy to him [Sun Jian] in their meetings. So Sun Jian killed him as he passed his territory.” It is also worth noting that Chen Shou identifies Wang Rui as ‘Inspector of Jingzhou’, a post that would not have permitted him to call for an officer’s execution, rather than Governor of Jingzhou, which may have been assigned with such authority relative to military law.
