Abstract: To address the problems of bottom damage concentration, of insufficient ductility and energy dissipation capacity and, of high post-earthquake repair costs of traditional RC shear walls under strong seismic events, a measure to improve the seismic resilience was proposed by setting vertical slits in the wall and by connecting through self-centering dampers. A novel self-centering damper for vertical joints of slotted walls was developed by the basis of the energy dissipation capacity of multi-slit steel plate with variable cross-section and the self-centering capacity of disc spring. The working principle and structural design of the self-centering damper was elaborated in detail, and the restoring force model as well as the calculation method of stiffness and forces of the feature points were established. Through the hysteretic test of the self-centering damper, the cooperative working mechanism of the steel plate and of the disc spring device was analyzed. Furthermore, the finite element model of vertically slotted RC walls with built-in self-centering dampers was established, and the influence of setting vertical slits and connecting with self-centering dampers on their seismic performance was investigated. The results indicate that the self-centering damper exhibits an obvious "flag-shaped" hysteretic response, and the steel plate achieves full section yielding. When the initial pre-loading of the disc spring device exceeds 1.25 times the yield shear strength of the steel plate, the damper exhibits excellent self-resetting performance. Splitting shear wall and connecting them with dampers can effectively alleviate the damage concentration at the bottom of the wall, and significantly improve the energy dissipation and ultimate deformation capacities. In addition, disc spring device with diagonal arrangement can significantly reduce the residual deformation of the steel plate. When the shear wall reaches the specified limit of the elastic-plastic inter-storey displacement angle (1/120), the residual deformation rate of energy dissipation steel plate is only 0.4%, which can be disassembled and replaced after earthquake.