《废都》以历史文化悠久的古都西安当代生活为背景，记叙"闲散文人"作家庄之蝶、书法家龚靖元、画家汪希眠及艺术家阮知非"四大名人"的起居生活，展现了浓缩的西京城形形色色"废都"景观。作者以庄之蝶与几位女性情感的纠葛为主线，以阮知非等诸名士穿插叙述为辅线，笔墨浓淡相宜。在诸多女性中，唐宛儿、柳月、牛月清为他塑造最为成功也最倾心的鲜明人物。在这些充满灵性、情感聪慧而富有古典悲剧色彩的人物身上，体现出作者至高的美学理想。（Waste City uses the contemporary life of ancient capital Xi'an with long history as the background. It narratives the daily life of "four famous men", the writer Zhuang Zhidie, the calligrapher Gong Jingyuan, the painter Wang Ximian and the artist Ruan Zhifei and shows the different waste city's landscape of Xijing City. The author uses Zhuang Zhidie and several females' complex affection as the mainline and Ruan Zhifei and some other famous man as the subordinate line which cooperate each other. In the several females, Tang Wanger, Liu Yue, Niu Yueqing are his most successful and like vivid roles. In these spiritual, emotional, intelligent and classical tragic characters, the author embodies the highest aesthetic ideas.）