In the Wiktionary page for this kanji they said that it's a pictogram for someone's mouth over a bowl of rice on a stand .. the question is: are they meaning this was the actual way for eating in this time without using hands? Or this just a symbol?
Answer
「食」(to eat) was originally「𠊊」, comprised of a mouth「亼・亽」and a cereal/grain/wheat basket「皀」. In the character「食」,「皀」was later changed into the shape of「艮」.
商
甲
甲1289
合集11485春秋
金
仲義⿱貝口
集成2279
篆
說文解字
秦
簡
睡ㆍ秦78
今
楷
「亼・亽」is「口」(mouth) written upside-down. This is more evident in the older shapes of「口」:
「亼・亽」functions as a semantic component in characters like 令, 命, 合, 今, among others.
商
甲
存下764
合集32879商
甲
京津4144
合集27937
篆
說文解字
今
楷今
楷「皀」fell into disuse as an individual character, but the word it represented remained, now written as「簋」, formed by adding「竹」(bamboo) and「皿」(dish; vessel) onto「皀」.
篆
說文解字
今
楷「皀」is a component in characters like 卽 (Shinjitai: 即), 旣 (Shinjitai: 既), 鄕 (Shinjitai: 郷), among others.
References:
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