Confucius is said to have had three thousand students.
Tips
history
Jesuit missionaries in China in the late 1500s Latinized 孔夫子 as Confucius, which is how the West came to know him. In Chinese the everyday name is 孔子; 孔夫子 sounds warmer and a little old-fashioned.
culture
A well-known two-part saying is 孔夫子搬家：净是书 'Confucius moving house: nothing but books'. It is said of someone who keeps losing, because 书 'book' sounds like 输 'to lose'.
