The origins of the dumplings and the snacks are different. Lanterns, also known as "round", "Yuanbao", originated in the north. Soup dumplings, also known as "dumplings", were first called "floating yuanzi" because they float and sink when cooked in a pot, and originated in the south.

Yuanxiao is made of glutinous rice flour, round, filled with bean paste, sugar, hawthorn and all kinds of candied fruits, etc., and can be eaten boiled, steamed, deep-fried or plucked. It is rumored that during the Shangyuan Festival, the pastry store in Metropolis (i.e., today's Beijing) in the Yuan Dynasty pioneered the shaking method in order to make it easy and quick for people to eat the festival food.

Liu Ruoyu of the Ming Dynasty has a detailed record of this: "The method of production of glutinous rice with fine flour, walnut kernels, sugar, roses for the filling, sprinkled with water and rolled into a walnut, such as the big, that is, the Jiangnan known as dumplings also." Because it is eaten on the night of the fifteenth day of the first month, it is directly named "Lantern". Although the method is rough, but cleverly conceived, and suitable for mass production.