Theorectically, in order to improve the society, the concerning focus of the intellectuals in the absolute monarchy days is different from that of the intellectuals in the democratic days. The former is of the condition that “as long as the king is well-regulated, the brings the country into order,” as Mencius said. The latter, however, is of the condition that intellectuals have to change their methods of improving in response to the reason that the modern political power base on the vague concept of “people”. But in fact, there weren’t real fair and just periodical elections during most of the 20th century in Republican China. So-called “government by the people” turned out to be a conception game. In other words, the political power was always holded by the privileged minority. Therefore both of the intellectuals of different days confront the same dilemma. That is, they must imagine the taste of the power holder and coincide themselves with in order to be an officer esily and to influence the political system effectively. However, an intellectual, by definition, is the person who behaves and evaluate differently from the dominant authority. Which should they choose-the officer of the government, or the permanent outside? Furthermore, no matter which kind of role he decides to play, he must more or less pay the prices of academic achievement even if involving politics psychologically only. Then, to what extent is the sacrifice tolerable? This is also an dilemma of intellectuals when they involve politics. Hu Shih (1891-1962) was one of the most famous intellectuals in modern China. He should have had greater academic achievement if he hadn’t had concerned and criticized practical polities so much. He had many opportunities to be an officer (Education Minister, Foreign Minister, Prime Minister, and even the candidate of president, etc.), but he refused all of them except the ambassador to U.S. during the Sino-Japanese war. Of course there must be some bitterness of choice. But why did he refuse them after all? Here I hope to expose and explain the intellectuals’ dilemma through studying the case of Hu Shih.