The story of genuine paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries in the past, invented a style of pictographic writing. They also had been utilizing many different things to write on, most notably lengths of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other uses derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official by the name of Tsai Lung, created usable paper, though it is clear from archaeological digs that in fact it was in existence in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back in ancient times scribing was mainly done on some derivative of bamboo or on strips of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nevertheless the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these two materials were not of great use. Then Tsai Lun thought of using the bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor with regard to the process of paper manufacture and got high accolade for his idea. Since those distant days paper has been in use everywhere and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will very likely never be uncovered! However, the important thing has to be that the discovery was made that if they ground particular plant-derived substances into a mush, discard unwanted materials, place the mush in water, screen it out onto textile sheets giving it enough time to dry out. After drying, it caked into a hard, robust sheet that was exceedingly light, and as long as it did not get damp or wet, proved incredibly resilient.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making technologies is still being used in precisely the same way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the first countries to take the techniques from China. A simple frame has a cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, watery grume is situated in to the opposite side and spread about until it has reached a level. Then it is left so that it will let the liquid to drain out of it and the mash to dry in to a paper sheet which will be able to be taken off.
As time went by a developer with great skills realized that manufacturing a frame with ribs and putting in place a fine replaceable bamboo mat across this, would allow the paper-making procedure to be accelerated greatly. Instead of tying up a single mould for each parchment sheet, therefore severely limiting the amount of sheets that are able to be made at one time, a stack of sieved mache was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed very slightly, and every layer of paste moved to a dry board.