Climatic Balance — a Chart's Temperature and Humidity

Another important angle for finding your useful god is johu (調候, climatic balance). Johu looks at a chart's temperature and humidity. Just as a person warms up by a fire when too cold and seeks shade when too hot, when a chart's cold-and-hot (寒暖) tilts far to one side, that's what needs resolving first.

Why does it matter? Some charts can't be explained by strength alone (strength-support). For example, a chart born in deep winter, frozen solid needs warm Fire (火) to breathe at all, whether the day master is strong or weak. Conversely, a chart born in high summer, bone dry needs cool Water (水) first. So when the temperature is extreme, johu comes before strength-support.

What's interesting is that the same element needs different things depending on the season. Metal in winter is frozen, so it welcomes a fire to melt it; Metal in summer is already scorched, so it welcomes water to cool it down. Same "Metal day master," but the prescription flips depending on the season it was born in. That's why BaZi is called not a formula, but a prescription made just for that person.

That said, if a chart's temperature isn't sharply tilted, there's no need to force johu into the picture. In that case you find the useful god with strength-support (抑扶) you learned earlier. Knowing how to pick and choose between johu and strength-support, depending on the situation, is exactly the core skill of the next 'useful god' chapter.