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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?

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    Your own source answers this, saying: 'a mouth over a bowl of rice on a stand.' en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%A3%9F
    – BJCUAI
    Mar 2, 2019 at 20:37
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    Pictographic Kanji are simplified or abstract depictions of the word they're supposed to represent. They're not going to include every single detail of the situation... hands do not add anything important to the action to eat.
    – dROOOze
    Mar 2, 2019 at 23:46

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「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
enter image description here
甲1289
合集11485春秋
金
enter image description here
仲義⿱貝口
集成2279
篆
enter image description here
說文解字
　秦
簡
enter image description here
睡ㆍ秦78
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

「亼・亽」is「口」(mouth) written upside-down. This is more evident in the older shapes of「口」:

商
甲
enter image description here
珠579
合集27706秦
簡
enter image description here
睡ㆍ為32
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

「亼・亽」functions as a semantic component in characters like 令, 命, 合, 今, among others.

商
甲
enter image description here
存下764
合集32879商
甲
enter image description here
京津4144
合集27937
篆
enter image description here
說文解字
　今
楷
enter image description here

　今
楷
enter image description here

　

「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
enter image description here
說文解字
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

「皀」is a component in characters like 卽 (Shinjitai: 即), 旣 (Shinjitai: 既), 鄕 (Shinjitai: 郷), among others.

References:

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Here's the illustration from [学習]{がくしゅう}[漢字]{かんじ}[新辞典]{しんじてん} (a great little elementary-level Kanji dictionary) that shows the origins of 食 as an open mouth pointing straight down, over a bowl filled with rice.

食の字のなりたち

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  • I know this bro but I want to know if this mouth just a sympol or this was the actuall way of eating with mouth without hands ? .. and thanks for the answer
    – user32763
    Mar 2, 2019 at 20:56
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    The dates I'm seeing suggest that chopsticks were invented a few hundred years before the earliest Chinese writing system, so it seems unlikely (though not impossible) that they were actually eating by just slamming their face down on the rice bowl. :)
    – db2
    Mar 2, 2019 at 21:43

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