After the Taipings captured the city of Nanjing, they offered an exam for women in January 1853 in which Fu attained the highest score.

He was the chief negotiator who persuaded the Song to return the 6 districts of Quảng Nguyên (today Hà Giang province) to Vietnam.

Nevertheless, the first Vietnamese person to be trạng nguyên was in fact Khương Công Phụ under Chinese Tang Dynasty.

[citation needed] Under Nguyễn Dynasty, the title trạng nguyên was not officially abolished, yet its standards were too high that it was virtually unachievable.

[citation needed] In modern Chinese, zhuangyuan is used to refer to anyone who achieves the highest mark on a test, or, more generally, to anyone who is at the forefront of his or her field.