Mooncakes are offerings to worship the moon god during the Mid-Autumn Festival in ancient times. Since then, the custom of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival has been formed. Mooncakes have a long history in China. According to historical records, as early as the Yin and Zhou dynasties, there was a kind of "Taishi cake" with thin edges and thick heart in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas to commemorate Taishi Wen Zhong. This is the "ancestor" of Chinese mooncakes. When Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty was on his mission to the Western Regions, he introduced sesame seeds and walnuts to add auxiliary ingredients to the production of moon cakes. At this time, round cakes filled with walnut kernels appeared, called "Hu cakes".

It is said to have originated in the Tang Dynasty. "Luozhong Insights" once recorded: During the Mid-Autumn Festival in Qujiang, Xizong of the Tang Dynasty ordered people to send moon cakes to reward Jinshi.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was popular in the palace, but also spread to the people. At that time, it was commonly known as "small cakes" and "moon balls". Later it evolved into a circle, which means reunion and happiness, reflecting people's good wishes for family reunion and deep longing for relatives and friends. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the royal family of the Northern Song Dynasty liked to eat a kind of "palace cake", which is commonly known as "small cake" and "moon cake" among the people. Su Dongpo has a poem that goes: "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crispness and joy in them."

The word "mooncake" already exists in Wu Zimu's "Mengliang Lu" of the Southern Song Dynasty, but the description of appreciating the moon and eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival was only recorded in the "West Lake Tour Zhihui" of the Ming Dynasty: "The 15th day of August is called the Mid-Autumn Festival, and people send moon cakes to each other to symbolize reunion." By the Qing Dynasty, there were more records about mooncakes, and their production became more and more sophisticated.

Zhou Mi, a writer of the Song Dynasty, mentioned the name "mooncake" for the first time in "Old Wulin Stories", which described what he saw in Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival gradually became popular among the people. At that time, the ingenious bakers printed the mythical story of Chang'e flying to the moon as a food art pattern on mooncakes, making mooncakes a must-have food for the Mid-Autumn Festival that is more popular among the people.

In the Qing Dynasty, eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival has become a common custom, and the production skills are getting higher and higher. Yuan Mei, a native of the Qing Dynasty, introduced in "Suiyuan Food List": "Puff-skin mooncakes are filled with pine nuts, walnut kernels, melon seeds, rock sugar, and lard. They are not only sweet but fragrant and soft, which is very unusual." In Beijing, Qianmen Zhimizhai ranks first in mooncake making. Throughout the country, five flavor series have been formed, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Guangzhou and Chaozhou. Many local folk customs have also emerged around worshiping and appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as the "Bu Zhuangyuan" in Jiangnan: cutting the moon cakes into large, medium and small pieces. The blocks are stacked together, and the largest one is placed at the bottom, which is the "number one"; the medium one is placed in the middle, and it is the "second place"; and the smallest one is on top, which is the "third flower". Then the whole family rolls dice, and whoever has the most numbers will be the number one winner and eat a big piece; the number two and number three will be ranked in order, and they have fun playing the game.