When TVB adapted Gu Long's LUK SIU FUNG novels in the 1970s, it was initially very fastidious about duplicating the novel to the smallest detail. Details and dialogue from the novel were preserved with an exactitude that has seldom been seen in subsequent TV adaptations of wuxia novels.
By the time of the third LUK SIU FUNG series (1978), however, TVB had abandoned pretenses towards novel accuracy and began to make significant modifications. An adaptation of the fifth novel (THE HAUNTED VILLA) of the LUK SIU FUNG series, LUK SIU FUNG III: THE BATTLE OF MO DONG, created a heavily modified version of the villain from the novel. In the novel, the villain Lo Do Ba Tze (the Old Sabre Tyrant) was, in fact, the Wooden Taoist, who had been introduced as a friend of Luk Siu Fung's in the earlier novels and was genuinely a surprise when revealed to be the villain of the fifth novel. TVB, however, decided to preserve the Wooden Taoist's original status as a friend and ally and made the other identity of the Old Sabre Tyrant its own creation...the "Jade Taoist."
The Jade Taoist, however, was not an altogether original character even though TVB created him. I felt that the Jade Taoist was essentially an evil Cheung 3 Fung. Consider these facts:
1. Both characters were the leaders of Mo Dong Sect.
2. Both characters were over 100 years old.
3. Both characters were acknowledged as the top martial artist in the stories in which they appeared.
4. Both characters spent great amounts of time in seclusion training in the martial arts.
5. Both characters were played by veteran actor Kwan Hoi San (in the same year, no less: 1978).
Essentially, the Jade Taoist WAS Cheung 3 Fung...if Cheung 3 Fung had been evil. The thought is quite terrifying. Imagine Cheung 3 Fung as an evil character in HSDS. With the power he commanded, both through his personal skills and his sect, he could have caused great chaos and ruin in wulin. We got a taste of that possibility in TVB's LSF III series.