“Discovery of the Child” is an important milestone in the history of pedagogy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau gave an account of the discovery of the child in his book Emile in the West, while Li Zhi proposed the theory of childlike innocence in the East. Li Zhi, who was born 185 years earlier, can be believed as the father of the theory of discovery of the child in the East. A comparative analysis of childhood education theories in China and the West from ancient times to the modern days can help us rediscover childhood and children.