Query about the wuxia novel "Evergreen"

I’ve been lurking on this forum for a while (greatly enjoying the translations!) and now I want to impose on you to ask for some help tracking down information about a particular wuxia novel. I figure if anybody on earth can answer this question, they will be here.

This is a reference to it in a publication of the Hong Kong International Film Festival:

“The late Qing Dynasty martial arts novel Evergreen (the only Qing novel that discussed Shaolin) goes into some details about the [Shaolin/Wudang] conflict: the hostilities were first manifest in a series of local murders, then later the Qing court drew on the support of Wudang disciples to destroy the Shaolin monastery in Fujian by fire. Two popular stories were first recorded in Evergreen: the story of Fang Shiyu’s boxing duel, and the story of Hu Huiqian’s attack on a textile mill.”

Another source tells me the full Chinese title is Wannaianqing qicai xinzhuan. I’ve seen the first word translated as ‘thousand-year-green” or “thousand year Qing.” Wan Nian Qing is also the name of an actual Chinese plant, and a picture of its leaves was a secret symbol worn on badges during the Cultural Revolution: “a counterrevolutionary code homophonous with the sentence "may [Jiang] Qing [rule for] ten thousand years." I’ve also seen what may be the same novel referred to as Emperor Travels South of the Yangste River. and I believe it was adapted for television recently as “Emperor Qianlong Visits Jiangnan.” Maybe, maybe not!

Here's the deal: I think this book could be a missing link in the development of some of the must common myths about the South Shaolin Monastery. It may have been the book in which these folktales were first written down and made “official” and passed on to the culture at large. Or it may even have been where some of the "Five Founders" stories originated. The Sholain Founders story, after all, is almost identical to the story of the Five Founders of the Heaven and Earth Society (aka The Triads), and in some Shoalin films the two are talked about as if they are they same.

Chances are I'm confusing the issue needlessly. I look forward to getting straightened out! Thanks in advance for any information you might have to offer!