The phenomena of shadow and image are familiar in our daily life. But, the related geometrical optics conceptions are not easy to understand. Most of the students think that an object can emanate its image or shadow and then project it onto the screen, so as the ancient Chinese scholars. The study explores the conception of shadow and image in some Chinese ancient books by adopting the misconception research approach. This study approach about exploring the similarity of misconceptions between students and ancient scholars can enlighten us a significant viewpoint in understanding Chinese ancient books and teaching geometrical optics.