The Prenatal Barrier: Understanding the Obstruction of Original Qi
The obstruction of original Qi, also known as the prenatal barrier (yuan qi liu dong), represents a fundamental disturbance or blockage of innate life energy, significantly impacting a person’s comprehensive development. This barrier is manifested both in the limited amount of original Qi received at birth and in the insufficient maturation of the body’s systems or organs, creating physical, energetic, and mental barriers.
The prenatal barrier is a significant obstacle to achieving longevity (shou), which, in Daoist understanding, denotes not just life span but also the ability to manage life energy, a crucial condition for advancement in practice.
When the body is unable to provide itself with the necessary amount and quality of energy due to congenital disorders, improper development, aging, or an inability to assimilate energy, achieving internal changes and transformations becomes impossible.
According to the teachings of the Daoist immortal Lian Cai He (Lian Cai He, 藍采和), to overcome this, one must generate higher-frequency energy (jing energy) and additionally obtain Qi energy to maintain the functioning of the body and consciousness.
In the context of Daoist alchemy, the prenatal barrier is seen as an impediment to the use of alchemical elixirs of orpiment (ci huang) and realgar (xiong huang) — natural components of essence responsible for producing jing energy.
Since Qi possesses not only energetic but also biological potential, any blockage, whether congenital or acquired over a lifetime, affects overall development and, generally, the ability to undergo practical development. With age, after forty years, the life resource of Qi decreases and is maintained by the energy of jing or shen, thus special attention should be given to maintaining prenatal Qi. Age itself can also cause Qi blockage, often overlooked by practitioners.
The prenatal conditions often serve as both an apparent and a hidden cause of life problems, seriously limiting the possibilities for their resolution. Restoring prenatal energy is a complex process involving adjusting the internal rhythm and perfecting the innate principles based on prenatal factors.
Unlocking and restoring original Qi should involve addressing both identified and hidden disruptions and deficiencies, which may have a congenital nature, starting with the vessel of original Qi, or the kidneys.
In this state, the work should be directed towards unblocking and strengthening the vessel of original Qi, which aids in restoring vitality and in improving in producing orpiment and realgar, necessary elements in the process of energy development.
