This paper proposes the concept of "sphere of acceptability" underlying the discursive interaction between academic intellectuals and the state in contemporary China. Through text-mining and vocabulary-matching analysis on data of 2007-2019 National Social Science Fund, the discursive sphere shared by academic intellectuals and the state are divided into three types: acceptable, unacceptable, and clientelist spheres. Furthermore, three strategies are illustrated for scholars to avoid the state's direction and construct the sphere of acceptability. This paper presents a new conceptual framework for underlying discursive interactions between the state and intellectuals. Embedded in the state's restrictions, the role of intellectuals interacting with the state cannot be oversimplified as submissive but also as autonomous simultaneously. Interdependence and coordination between intellectuals and the state may facilitate adaptive governance in an authoritarian regime.