Prince Duan sided with Empress Dowager Cixi and opposed the Hundred Days' Reform movement initiated by the Guangxu Emperor and his allies.

[5] During the crisis in June 1900, he headed the Zongli Yamen (foreign affairs ministry) and commanded the Boxers who besieged the Beitang cathedral.

[8] Rumours circulated during the Boxer rebellion about Dong Fuxiang and Prince Duan seizing control of Gansu and rebelling, which were false.

[13] Prince Duan lived in exile until 1917, when the general Zhang Xun briefly restored Puyi, the Last Emperor who abdicated in 1912, to the Qing imperial throne.

[14] Foreigners were furious when they learnt that Prince Duan had returned to Beijing, and started protesting to the Beiyang government.

Prince Duan also had an additional layer of familial ties with the Guangxu Emperor: His wife, Jingfang of the Yehenara clan, was the third daughter of Guixiang (桂祥), Empress Dowager Cixi's younger brother.

[1] However, the Genealogy of the Aisin Gioro Family (愛新覺羅宗譜) does not confirm that Prince Duan's wife was Jingfang, Empress Dowager Cixi's niece.

Prince Duan's secondary spouse was the daughter of Gongsangzhu'ermote (貢桑朱爾默特), a jasagh-prince from the Mongol Borjigin clan.

Prince Duan is portrayed by Australian actor Robert Helpmann in the 1963 American historical film 55 Days at Peking.