What does ShiZong mean?

When you enter a Five Claw school, you are struck by a special feeling. It is the feeling of being accepted into a family. It is a feeling that stems from the dedication and compassion that Shi Zong Dan Sandelin offers to each student.
Martial arts schools traditionally use formal titles for a variety of reasons, usually to convey a deep respect. In early 2010, the body of Five Claw Instructors met to decide on a way that we could honor our leader, then Shun Shifu Dan Sandelin. Our school had been through a lot of difficult changes, in difficult times. Despite the desperate economic feeling of the times, we appeared to be weathering the economic crunch and were actually growing in leaps and bounds. We had three schools, in two counties of California, and almost 300 students. Many of our students felt that their lives had been immeasurably enriched by their involvement with Five Claw.
We felt that we needed a way to honor the one man who, at great personal sacrifice, had created this special place for all of us. Dan Sandelin, the founder of Five Claw, was clearly responsible for our success as a school, and as a system. We wanted to acknowledge the depth of the commitment, energy and devotion that then Shun Shifu Dan Sandelin had given to his schools and to all Five Claw students. We wanted to give him a title that would be uniquely his, that could not be handed down, inherited, or shared.
We, the instructors of Five Claw, unanimously decided to honor him by giving him the title ShiZong. Shi means “teacher” in Mandarin and Zong means “ancestral”. The corresponding terms in Cantonese are Si and Jo. The term Sijo is sometimes used in the martial arts community to designate the founder of a recent martial arts system. Shizong Sandelin refused this particular title, as he did not want to discredit or dishonor the creators of the arts upon which we are based. He agreed to the variant Shi Zong, as it is not in popular use.
We use this term for ShiZong Dan Sandelin to describe him as the founder of Five Claw Martial Arts.