The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen

The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen (1991) is a fantasy young adult book by American author Lloyd Alexander. Set in a mythical Chinese past, the novel follows teenage prince Jen Shao-yeh as he sets out in search of a fabulous kingdom, T’ien-kuo, where the ruler is just and the people are happy. The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen continues Alexander’s project of adapting ancient mythical literature for young readers: his best-known work, The Chronicles of Prydain, is based on the Welsh mythological epic the Mabinogion. Two of the Prydain volumes earned Newbery Medals (in 1964 and 1968), and reviewers of Alexander’s 1991 book declared, “Prince Jen's travels are pleasantly reminiscent of the series of coming-of-age journeys found in the author's earlier Prydain Chronicles” (Publishers’ Weekly).

Prince Jen Shao-yeh is a well-meaning boy, but as the heir to his father’s kingdom, he has been pampered and sheltered from the realities of life. One day, a strange elderly man arrives at the palace. “He was not a beggar, because he asked for no alms. He was not a man of wisdom, because he asked for something ridiculous: he demanded an audience with King T’ai.”

The man—Master Wu—gains an audience with the king, and Prince Jen listens spellbound as Wu describes the kingdom of T’ien-kuo, a place whose just and wise ruler has ordained perfect laws to make all his citizens content and prosperous. Eager to see this kingdom for himself, Jen asks his father for permission to travel there. King T’ai, too, is eager to learn the secrets of T’ien-kuo’s ruler, and he gives his son permission for the journey, instructing him to learn the skills and knowledge of the fabulous kingdom.



King T’ai instructs his son to take gifts for the ruler of T’ien-kuo. The king and his son assume that the best gifts will be rich jewels and other valuable objects, but Master Wu advises Jen to take six apparently valueless objects instead: an old sword, a saddle, a flute, a bowl, a paint box, and a kite. Jen objects, but Master Wu insists that these objects will be more valuable to the ruler of T’ien-kuo than gold or jewels, and Jen acquiesces.

As well as the gifts, Jen takes a large royal retinue with him, and his faithful servant Mafoo, with whom he exchanges comic repartee:

“‘You make sport of my ignorance,’ Prince Jen said reproachfully.



“‘No, no,’ Mafoo protested. ‘Ignorance is a common ailment. In time, it goes away. Unless it proves fatal.’”

The traveling party quickly runs into difficulties, some natural and some man-made. At every turn, Jen’s naivety about the real world costs him. He is gradually stripped of his retinue, until he is left with just Mafoo. However, he acquires some new companions, including the honorable burglar Moxa (who doesn’t steal from the very poor or from royalty—fortunately for Jen) and Voyaging Moon, a beautiful and intelligent flute-player who uses Jen’s appearance as a means to escape her lecherous master. Jen instantly falls for her. Jen also receives timely advice from a series of elderly sages: Master Hu, Master Fu, Master Shu, and Master Chu.

As well as losing his entourage, Jen also loses the gifts he is carrying one by one. As he does so, the narrative follows each gift into its new owner’s hands, and by this means we learn that each gift is magical. The gifts reveal the innate skills and qualities of their possessor. In the hands of a skilled artist, the paint box can be used to paint pictures that come to life. Each painting also summons a kindly tiger-spirit, Lao Hu. Meanwhile, the iron sword falls into the hands of Natha Yellow-Scarf, a bandit bent on revenge against the ruling class that cheated him out of his farmlands. In his hands, the sword is an unstoppable weapon, which seems to egg him on to atrocity after atrocity.



Meanwhile, deprived of gifts, entourage, and even Mafoo, Jen despairs of ever reaching T’ien-kuo. He begins to feel a failure as a prince, and his despair intensifies when he is separated from his last remaining companion, Voyaging Moon. Now he must choose between continuing his appointed quest and searching for the woman he loves. Deciding that he is not worthy of his royal status anyway, he abandons his quest in order to seek Voyaging Moon.

This quest is even more dangerous, and Jen has several close brushes with death. Eventually, he finds himself on the run. Along the way, he learns much about his kingdom: the injustices lurking in the poor corners, not visible to him in his princely life.

As she searches for Jen, Voyaging Moon is kidnapped by Natha, who forces her to marry him. Voyaging Moon agrees, to buy time for Jen.



However, Jen’s situation worsens. Caught by the authorities, he is sentenced to “Master Cangue,” an elaborate stock. As he tries and fails to free himself so he can rescue Voyaging Moon, he gives into despair. Without possessions, honor, or title, he loses all sense of his own identity and collapses.

That is, until Mafoo and Moxa track him down and free him. Now Jen recognizes the truth of something Master Wu had told him: “You must know nothing before you can learn something, and be empty before you can be filled. Is not the emptiness of the bowl what makes it useful? As for laws, a parrot can repeat them word for word. Their spirit is something else again. As for governing, one must first be lowest before being highest.”

With Mafoo and Moxa, Jen rescues Voyaging Moon. Along the way, he meets up with the recipients of the other gifts, and together they march on Natha Yellow-Scarf, who has taken over Jen’s kingdom. The tiger-spirit Lao Hu finally kills the undefeatable bandit.



Jen vows to be a just ruler, correcting all the wrongs he has discovered in his journey. Master Wu reveals that T’ien-kuo was his own kingdom all along: “The ideal place to live is the one you build for yourself.”