Abstract: In the winter of 1948, under Fu Sinian’s direction, the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, relocated to Taiwan, while Xia Nai returned to his ancestral home in Wenzhou to await that the situation was to be stabilized. After returning home, Xia began making long-term plans: besides reading systematically and sorting out earlier writings, he also started reading revolutionary theory of the New Democratic Revolution and teaching himself Russian. After the founding of PRC, Xia received multiple invitations to go north, yet he did not immediately proceed to Beijing; instead he took a position at the Department of Anthropology at Zhejiang University as an expedient. During this period, both Liang Siyong and Zheng Zhenduo were urgently hoping that Xia would go north to lead New China’s archaeological undertaking: Liang persistently called on Xia to come and preside over the reorganization of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, and carried out archaeological work through the newly-established institute, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Zheng, for his part, hoped that Xia would serve as the Director of the Antiquities Division of the State Bureau of Cultural Relics, thereby taking charge of archaeological planning for the whole nation. In the summer of 1950, Xia received an official appointment certificate from the Government Administration Council. Urged by Liang and Zheng, he left his hometown for the north in September of that year, assuming the heavy responsibility of building New China’s archaeological enterprise. At the juncture of regime transition, Xia underwent a major turning point in his life: the collapse of the old order, the establishment of new institutions, and the required adjustments to scholarly directions—these were all perplexities commonly faced by senior intellectuals of the time. Xia responded to these challenges with composure and became one of the key leaders of New China’s archaeological undertaking.

Key words: Xia Nai, the Institute of History and Philology, the Institute of Archaeology, Liang Siyong, Zheng Zhenduo