Xú Zhěnyà 徐枕亞 (1889–1937), also known by the pen names Dōnghǎi Sānláng 東海三郎 and Zhěnyà 枕亞, was a native of Hǎiyú 海虞 (present-day Cháng-shū 常熟, Jiāngsū). He is the most celebrated representative of the “Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies” school (Yuānyang húdié pài 鴛鴦蝴蝶派) of early Republican-era sentimental fiction in China.
His principal work is Yù Lí Hún 玉梨魂 (Soul of the Jade Pear), serialized from 1912 and published in book form by the Shanghai Mínquán Bào 民權報. Written in ornate parallel prose (piànwén 駢文), it recounts the thwarted love between the scholar Hé Mèngxiá 何夢霞 and a young widow, and became one of the best-selling novels of the Republican era. Under the pen name “Dōnghǎi Sānláng” he also authored KR4k0265 Xuě Hóng Lèi Shǐ 雪鴻淚史 (1915), presented as the autobiographical first-person diary of the same character Hé Mèngxiá. The Kanripo catalog attributes Xuě Hóng Lèi Shǐ to “Lǐ Xiūxíng 李修行,” an alternate pen name used by Xú Zhěnyà for this companion work.
Xú was a founding member of the Mínquán Bào literary circle and later edited the journal Xiǎoshuō Cóngbào 小說叢報. His influence on the sentimental fiction genre was enormous, spawning numerous imitations. No CBDB entry has been identified for him, as the database coverage of early Republican literary figures is limited.