The origins of true paper started in China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, virtually five thousand years ago, invented a style of writing that used pictures. The Egyptians too had been making use of various things to write upon, most commonly pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were using for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105AD an official named Tsai Lung, brought out usable paper, although it is almost certain from finds by archaeologists that it was actually around in South East Asia for more than likely two centuries before him.
Back during ancient times gone by setting down words or pictograms was usually done on some form of bamboo or on strips of silk, which were known as Ji then. But silk was expensive and bamboo being too heavy, these materials were not convenient. Due to this Tsai Lun thought of using bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor about the process of making paper and was endowed with high accolade for his abilities. Consequently, since that time paper has been used every place and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this particular claim is deserved, will very likely never be uncovered! Nevertheless the important consideration has to be that they discovered that they could pound particular substances taken from plant material into a mache, bstract impurities, put the mache in liquid, screen it out onto cloth sheets giving it time to dry. After drying, it dried into a hard, dense sheet that was very light, and providing it did not get damp, turned out to be particularly tenacious.
This simplest of paper making technologies is even now still being used in precisely a similar way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the first places to make use of the technolgies from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame has a kind of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, very watery mush is emptied in to the far end and moved around until it has reached a level. It is then left that will allow the water to drain and the pulp to dry into a sheet of parchment which will be able to be peeled off.
As time passed an extremely talented developer came to realize that constructing a frame with ribbing and putting a delicate removable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making procedure to be speeded up incredibly. Rather than utilizing one mould for each paper sheet, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that are able to be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up layer upon layer, with just a piece of cotton thread between them to help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed slightly, and every layer of mash transferred to a dry place.