The paper re-examined the rise of soju at the end of the Koryo period, which marked a new era in Korean drinking history from the perspective of distillation-technology transfer in Eurasia during the Mongol period. While making use of the sources available to date, the relative lack of material forces us to rely on reasoning and inference to create the most comprehensive and convincing explanation possible. By comparing it with earlier traditional Korean alcoholic drinks, we have clearly seen how soju was distinctive and new. Yet sources do not clearly say when and how soju spread to and in Koryo at that time. That is why many different theories have competed for preeminence. The paper reviewed earlier theories including those by Chang Chihyon and Yi Songu, and also examined the most recent studies done in different languages and also new archeological findings. We can propose the following provisional conclusion from the current examination. First, distillation developed independently in China. Yet it was the Mongols who adopted distillation technology from other cultures such as China to make distilled alcohols using mare’s milk drink that they enjoyed, and named it arakhi, a foreign word from West Asia that migrated through overland and sea routes, and popularized it in large parts of Eurasia including China and Korea under the Mongol influence in the course of mobilizing goods and people including soldiers and merchants. Merchants from different societies active in the international trades that traveled along the expanded trade routes of the time probably accelerated the transfer processes. The case of Korea, where soju became popular right after the coming of the Mongols, is supported by a good number of documents and historical contexts. That some Mongol soldiers recruited to Korean army camps were possibly from craftsmen families who were able to introduce distillation technology suggests a quite likely scenario. While we cannot deny the possibility that soju was transferred earlier from China to Korea, no evidence supports this so far. Available pieces of evidence all clearly say that distilled alcohol spread widely only after it was transferred from China to Korea during the late Koryo period. The case of soju transfer clearly shows that a big cultural influence could occur through exceptional historical changes. Unlike some foreign alcoholic drinks, which transferred beyond their cultural zone as tribute and then spread very slowly among kings and nobles, soju spread quickly for a short period of time under unprecedented historical conditions, such as “Korea’s close connection to wider parts of Eurasia” through the Mongol empire. It is furthermore intriguing as it involves a transfer of technological knowledge. The story of soju’s rise in Korea is a good example of the rise of a new cultural element based on tradition and innovation, involving both adaptation and localization of new technologies. A further investigation as part of a larger study of the history of distillation on a worldwide basis will help us explore significance of the case of Korean soju in global history.

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