The history of genuine paper happened in South East Asia. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5000 years in the past, developed a form of pictographic writing. They also had been utilizing various objects to write on, most usually strips of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government going by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological finds that actually it was around in China for more than likely two hundred years prior to him.
In olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally on bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. However, the great price of silk and bamboo being too weighty, these materials were not of great use. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of tree bark, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he made a report to the emperor regarding the production of paper and was endowed with many accolades for his inventions. From those distant times paper has been utilized all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this title is accurate or not, will very likely never be uncovered! Nonetheless the important factor must be that it was found that they could pound particular substances derived from plant matter in to a mash, discard impure substances, place the mash in liquid, sieve it onto cloth sheets allowing it to dry. When it dried, it dried into a firm, tough sheet that was extraordinarily light, and as long as it was not allowed to get damp, turned out to be astonishingly durable.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making techniques is still practised in exactly the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial areas to make use of the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame utilizes a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, diluted grume is situated into the other side and moved around until it has reached a level. It is then left hanging somewhere to let the water to drain out of it and the paste to dry in to a parchment sheet which can be removed by stripping off.
At some stage an extremely talented individual came to realize that building a frame with ribs and putting a fine removable bamboo mat over this, would enable the procedure to be accelerated to a great degree. Rather than utilizing one mold for every paper sheet, therefore severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mache could be built up layer upon layer, with only a piece of cotton thread between them to enable later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and each sheet of mush transferred to a place to dry.