Due to the historical transition from industrial society to postindustrial society, great changes have taken place in the area of intellectuals. At present, there
are three main dimensions of the definition of Intellectuals: the functionalism, the moral motivation and the field of action. The core of traditional intellectual research is to describe and explain the ideology of intellectuals, which can be divided into two theoretical frameworks: structural analysis and historical tradition analysis. In the background of knowledge society, the focus of intellectual research gradually transfers from consciousness to behavior, paying much attention to the intellectual intervention. The field theory, network analysis and positioning theory all provide rich topics for future research. The transformation of the theme of intellectual research has its economic, social and cultural reasons. Intellectual intervention should be developed in contemporary China.