Global cooling has formed a livable climate environment for humans since the late Cenozoic era. Over geological timescale, continental silicate rocks absorb CO₂ greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through chemical weathering, which is believed to play a critical role in regulating long-term climate change on Earth. However, the factors of controlling the continental weathering rate that are the forefront and challenge of earth science research have received widespread attentions from the scientific community since the second half of the 20th century. This article reviews the important progress made in the field of continental weathering research over the past decades, with a focus on sorting out and summarizing the potential, controversies, and challenges of using new non-traditional stable Li isotopes to trace continental weathering. We hope that this will provide valuable clues for future continental weathering research, and further accelerate the development of this field.