《恒先》在思想史上最大貢獻在於第一次明確提出「氣是自生」命題，這一論斷是對宗教和神話傳說世界觀的否定。從以氣釋道、道氣合一的思想史進程判斷，《恒先》可能在以氣釋道、道氣合一學術思潮出現之前就已問世，《恒先》寫作時間可能不晚於戰國初期。《恒先》應是一篇在陰陽五行家產生之前就已問世的作品，既非道家類文章，也非儒家文獻。

The greatest contribution of Hengxian to the history of intellectual thought is that it specifically mentioned the proposition of “the self-generation of qi” for the first time ever. This is a denial of the worldviews of religions and myths. In view of how the history of the idea of the integration of qi and tao progressed, it is fair to say that Hengxian was released before the thought about the integration of qi and tao emerged. Hengxian could not possibly have been written after the early Period of Warring States. Hengxian was probably released before the school of Yin-yang and Five Elements was founded, therefore neither a Taoist nor a Confucian text.