My question has two parts:
1) Did Confucius charge people who became his students?
2) What evidence is there that students travelled great distances (or
from other countries) to study with Confucius?
I require citations with any answer.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 27 Oct 2004 14:28 PDT

Would this constitute evidence that Confucius charged his students?

"There was one young man of humble origin named Yan Hui who wanted to
be accepted as Confucius's student. But the family was so poor that
they even had difficulty providing themselves with daily necessaries.
He was afraid he would be rejected as he could not afford the tuition
required. One day he came to where Confucius was giving lectures. He
saw a few men sitting under a big tree and overheard Confucius say,
'I'm ready to accept anyone that can bring 10 pieces of preserved meat
for tuition, whatever his origin.' Yan Hui was greatly heartened by
this. He hastened back home and told his friends Zi Lu and Zi Gong
about it. A few days later, all three became Confucius's students.
Even a man named Gong Yechang who had just been released from prison
came under Confucius's tutelage."

http://www.chinavoc.com/history/dongzhou/confucius.htm

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Clarification of Question by mitchlev-ga on 27 Oct 2004 16:07 PDT

Yes, this definitely answers part one of the question. Excellent
quote. I am impressed. Now, is there evidence that anyone travelled
great distances, or from foreign countries?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 27 Oct 2004 16:37 PDT

This has been quite a challenge!

Does this quote meet your needs for the second part of the question?

"Students from all quarters of the empire came to the State of Lu to
learn from him. It is said that he had three thousand disciples, of
whom 72 mastered six arts, rite, music, archery, charioteer, writing
and arithmetic."

http://confucian.tccg.gov.tw/eng/d.htm

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Clarification of Question by mitchlev-ga on 03 Nov 2004 06:24 PST

Sorry for my delay in getting back.  Your final answer is excellent.
It is very responsive to my needs. I consider this question answered,
and am very impressed. Great value for money.

I'm glad to have been able to help. This was an interesting research
project; many years ago I wrote a college term paper on Confucius, and
it was stimulating to refresh my knowledge about this remarkable man.

Below I have reposted the two links which I suggested earlier,
indicating that Confucius charged a fee to his students, and that some
students traveled from afar to study under Confucius.

"There was one young man of humble origin named Yan Hui who wanted to
be accepted as Confucius's student. But the family was so poor that
they even had difficulty providing themselves with daily necessaries.
He was afraid he would be rejected as he could not afford the tuition
required. One day he came to where Confucius was giving lectures. He
saw a few men sitting under a big tree and overheard Confucius say,
'I'm ready to accept anyone that can bring 10 pieces of preserved meat
for tuition, whatever his origin.' Yan Hui was greatly heartened by
this. He hastened back home and told his friends Zi Lu and Zi Gong
about it. A few days later, all three became Confucius's students.
Even a man named Gong Yechang who had just been released from prison
came under Confucius's tutelage."

Chinavoc: Confucius - a Great Educator in Chinese History
http://www.chinavoc.com/history/dongzhou/confucius.htm

"Students from all quarters of the empire came to the State of Lu to
learn from him. It is said that he had three thousand disciples, of
whom 72 mastered six arts, rite [sic], music, archery, charioteer,
writing and arithmetic."

Taichung Municipal Confucius Temple & Martyrs' Shrine
http://confucian.tccg.gov.tw/eng/d.htm

I used many different Google search strings in my quest for the
information that you need. These were the two that were most
successful:

Google Web Search: confucius "for tuition"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=confucius+%22for+tuition%22

Google Web Search: confucius "students from" study OR learn
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=confucius+%22students+from%22+study+OR+learn

I also performed similar searches using the names K'ung Fu-tzu,
K'ung-tzu, Kong Zi, Kong Qiu, and Zhong Ni.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

Very impressed with the speed that this was answered - especially
since I was pessimistic about getting any valuable response, this
being the first time I have used the service.

Thank you very much for the five stars and the generous tip!

~pinkfreud