The custom of eating mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have begun in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, people were tortured by the cruel government, which prompted a nationwide rebellion. Zhu Yuanzhang united the different resistance forces and proposed for an uprising. But it was difficult to convey his orders, as raids by government forces were intense. Liu Bowen, the strategist of Zhu's troops, came up with the idea of hiding notes containing the date of the uprising in mooncakes and distributing them to rebels, informing the rebels to uprise on the night of August 15 of the lunar calendar. On the very day, the rebels responded to the uprising with an inexorable trend.

Soon, Xu Da took the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, marking the success of the uprising. When the news came, Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he ordered the soldiers to share the happiness with the people on the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, and awarded his subjects with the mooncakes used to convey messages during the uprising as seasonal cakes. Since then, mooncakes have been more and more exquisite with more and more varieties, some of which are even as large as round plates. They have become a good choice of gifts. From that grew the custom of eating mooncakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival among people.