 Around this time, he became known as studious in the Confucian classics and histories, and was also a good calligrapher.In 424, believing Liu Yilong's older brother Emperor Shao (who had succeeded Emperor Wu after Emperor Wu's death in 422) to be frivolous and incapable of governing the empire, the high-level officials Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, and Xie Hui deposed and subsequently killed him, as well as another older brother of Liu Yilong's, Liu Yizhen () the Prince of Luling, since they believed Liu Yizhen to be even less suitable than Emperor Shao.Believing Liu Yilong to be capable and lenient, they offered the throne to Liu Yilong, with Fu personally arriving with other officials at Liu Yilong's headquarters at Jiangling.