to give a boy a trimming

In spring 815 Liu and the other subprefects were summoned back by the Emperor to Ch'ang-an. He was filled with hope of reprieve and a new position at court, but to his disappointment, he was sent farther away from the capital as governor of Liu-chou in Kwangsi Province, an aboriginal region infested with malaria and other subtropical diseases. The people therewere supersitious and impoverished, and banditry was rife.

And I cannot but expect that this will repeatedly lead to the discovery that an initially intractable problem can be factored after all.

The blood of atonement thou never soughtest. The grace of God thou never supplicatedst—they were unnecessary and contemptuous to thee, and now thou must bear thy burden alone, […]