The quantitative relationship between the energy dissipation capacity of RC members and displacement deformation, cumulative energy dissipation and structural design parameters were established by the research group in the early stage, and then the damage index based on energy dissipation capacity and performance index limits were proposed. Based on the existing research, the seismic design method of RC square/rectangular column members for SDOF systems based on damage performance is proposed, and the method is introduced by an example. It is found that the seismic design method establishes a quantitative relationship between the structural design parameters and seismic parameters, which is convenient to guide the structural design. The increase in the ratio of transverse reinforcement can reduce the damage to RC column members, but when the ratio of transverse reinforcement exceeds a certain threshold value, the damage reduction effect is not obvious. The increase of the earthquake duration can aggravate the development of the damage to the RC column members, and the increasing effect is first fast and then slow. This seismic design method can make up for the deficiency that the duration effect is not considered in the current seismic code.