Moon cake has a long history. According to historical records, as early as in the Yin, Zhou period, Jiangsu and Zhejiang there is a commemorative master Wen Zhong's thin side of the heart of the thick "master cake", which is China's moon cake "ancestor". Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian's mission to the West, the introduction of sesame seeds, walnuts, moon cakes for the production of additional ingredients, then appeared in the walnut kernel as the filling of the round cake, called "Hu cake".
Tang Dynasty, it is said that one year on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei to enjoy the moon to eat Hu cake, Emperor Xuanzong smacked the "Hu cake" name is not good, Yang Guifei looked up at the bright moon, the heart surging, out of the mouth and the "moon cake", and from then on The name "moon cake" will be gradually spread in folklore.
The Northern Song Royal Mid-Autumn Festival like to eat a kind of "Palace cake", folk commonly known as "small cakes", "moon ball". Song Dynasty writer Zhou Mi, in the account of the Southern Song capital of Lin'an, "the old story of Wulin" in the first mention of the "moon cake" name.
During the Ming Dynasty, mooncakes were gradually popularized among the people during the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, the clever baker, the Chang'e moon mythological story as a food art pattern printed on the moon cake, so that the moon cake has become more popular among the people of the Mid-Autumn Festival of the necessary food.
During the Qing Dynasty, the production process of mooncakes improved greatly, and the variety also increased, for the moon cakes everywhere. Yuan Jinglan, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, has a long poem "mooncake poem", which reads "into the kitchen light over the frost, steaming kettle air flow liquid. The mooncake is kneaded with fine flour dust and dotted with rouge traces. Relatives feed each other, the festival is not allowed to neglect ...... children sitting reunion, cups and plates scattered mess" and other lines, from the production of moon cakes, friends and relatives to give each other moon cakes to set up a family feast and enjoy the moon, the narrative is exhaustive.