In 1920, Xia led the Xiangnan Student Union to fight against General Zhang Jingyao.

[2] In 1922, Xia was in charge of the Hunan Student Union, leading a strike of rickshaw drivers and a boycott of Japanese products.

In 1927, Xia was made a member of the newly formed Hunan Provincial Committee along with Mao Zedong.

The committee's two main purposes were to decide who should own land and how the Autumn Harvest Uprising should take place, if at all.

He was survived by his wife, Zheng Jiajun (郑家钧) and his daughter, Xia Yun (夏芸).

[citation needed] Before his execution, he wrote his last poem: Translation: Beheading is nothing to me, A true communist who'd be.

On 10 September 2009, he was voted to be one of the 100 heroes who made significant contribution to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.