1956 ——1957 assisted professor Liang sicheng in studying the history of modern architecture in Beijing.
1961-1963 participated in the investigation and study of folk houses in Zhejiang and Fujian.
1963 ——1965 assisted professor Liu Dunzhen in compiling the history of ancient architecture in China.
1983 to 1989 participated in the national painting and calligraphy appraisal group.
1986 was hired as the standing Committee member of the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee.
After 1989, he undertook the national natural science foundation project "Research on Architectural History of China", and completed the monograph in 1994, which was published by China Building Industry Press in 200 1 year.
1994 was elected as an academician of China Academy of Engineering. Since 1994, he has undertaken special research in the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Construction.
In 2005, he served as chairman. Director of the Archaeological Society of China.
On August 2, 2003, he was appointed as a librarian in central research institute of culture and history. 1989, Fu Xinian undertook the project "Research on the Architectural History of China" funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, and edited the five-volume "History of Ancient Architecture in China" and the second volume "Architectural History of the Three Kingdoms, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties". Because there are few examples left in this period, Fu Xinian has verified the examples with a large number of historical documents and archaeological excavation materials, and combed and inferred the basic characteristics, technical development level and development context of the architecture in this period with reference to foreign materials.
Since 1994, Fu Xinian has undertaken a special study on "China Ancient Urban Planning, Building Group Layout, Single Building Design Techniques and Composition Rules" issued by the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Construction, focusing on exploring the planning and design techniques that formed the unique architectural system in ancient China and played an important role in sustainable development. By studying a large number of examples and analyzing the measured drawings and data, it is revealed that in ancient times, in addition to the basic modulus of single building design recorded in the literature, there were also methods to control planning and design by using expansion modulus. For example, in the planning of capital and city, Miyagi, Li Fang and block are taken as area modules, in the layout of large buildings, the main courtyard is taken as area module, and in the design of single buildings, the cornice height is taken as expansion module. It is also found that in the courtyard layout, in addition to the important feature of placing the main building in the geometric center of the site, in the planning and layout of large-scale buildings in palaces, temples, monasteries, mansions and other courtyards, there are also planning and design techniques that take grid as the layout benchmark and certain tolerance as the same area module to control the relationship between different courtyards and buildings and maintain the harmony in scale. In addition, it also explores the characteristics and laws of modulus used in Japanese architectural design before the 9th century, as circumstantial evidence to study the architectural design technology and laws from the late Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, which advances the understanding of the maturity of modulus used in China's ancient planning and design for about 300 years, and shows the advanced nature of China's ancient urban planning and architectural design methods. In his spare time, Fu Xinian devoted himself to the study of ancient book edition and ancient art history. His grandfather, Mr. Fu Zengxiang, was a modern catalogue collator and a great bibliophile, and his father, Mr. Fu Zhongmo, was an expert in the study of modern ancient jade. He sorted out his grandfather's manuscripts and compiled four books, about 5 million words, which were published by Zhonghua Book Company and Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House respectively. Finishing his father's manuscript, he compiled two monographs, The Essence of Ancient Jade and Gu Yuying, both published by Zhonghua Book Company in Hong Kong. Therefore, he was hired as a member of the planning group for the collation and publication of ancient books in the State Council and a consultant of the National Library of China.
Fu Xinian has long been engaged in the study of the history of ancient calligraphy and painting in China. 1983- 1989 participated in the national painting and calligraphy appraisal group, appraised the ancient paintings and calligraphy collected in China, and signed appraisal opinions on a large number of collections in the Catalogue of Ancient Paintings and Calligraphy in China. This paper focuses on the textual research of some important ancient famous paintings collected at home and abroad, and has written more than ten research papers, which have been compiled and published as "Fu Xinian Calligraphy and Painting Appraisal Collection". Editor-in-Chief of The Complete Works of China Fine Arts: Song Dynasty Paintings, Up and Down Paintings and Yuan Dynasty Paintings.