由於《太一生水》楚簡之出土，本論文乃重新探討太一與水之關係及發展。戰國秦漢太一既是天地萬物的創造者、典章禮樂的本源，又是眾星拱之天極星神。而水是道家的第一性，老莊皆出於淮河水鄉，而受楚宋影響的《管子．水地》亦以水為萬物之準，則太一與水的牽連，有其必然性，然而諸古籍皆未始有「太一生水」的思想，簡文的詞彙、結構、思想卻最近似於《鶡冠子》。本論文進而推論：太一星神的崇拜，與東南道家淮水楚宋故地有地緣關係，而出土於楚地的《太一生水》，即屬於這個地域文化的思想，與燕齊以北方水德為中心的觀念不同。「太一生水」在思想史上缺乏直接承先啟後的脈絡，而其形成應在太一與水兩個獨立概念之後，竹簡被定為戰國中葉，似嫌太早。

　　　　　In Xun Zi's admonition of the philosophers of ancient China, there is mention of Mencius' rather vague theory of the “Five Elements”. This theory was posited it place of the earlier authorities on the subject and thus confused later scholars. After all these years, there is still general disagreement as to what this “Five Elements” theory is pointing out. Perhaps the excavation of the silk texts a the Ma Wang Dui tomb in Changsha, Hunan or the 1993 excavation of the bamboo texts a Guodian, Hubei can provide us with some clues concerning the meaning of this ancient puzzle.