author

Zhenya Xu

1889–1937

A major voice of early 20th-century Chinese popular fiction, he became best known for emotional love stories that reached a wide readership. His work helped define the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school, a hugely influential current in modern Chinese literature.

1 Audiobook

玉梨魂

玉梨魂

by Zhenya Xu

About the author

Born in Jiangsu in 1889, Xu Zhenya was a Chinese novelist and a member of Nanshe, an important literary society of the late Qing and early Republican period. Before building his literary career, he worked as a teacher and later studied law in Shanghai. He also wrote for and edited Minquan bao (People's Rights Newspaper).

Xu is especially remembered for Yu li hun (Jade Pear Spirit), a tragic romance that brought him broad fame. Sources describe him as one of the representative writers of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school, a popular literary movement known for romance, sentiment, and serialized storytelling.

He died in 1937. A suitable verified portrait image was not clearly available from the pages reviewed, so no profile image is included here.