The history of true paper started in China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5,000 years ago, invented a pictographic style of writing. The Egyptians also had been using many different objects to scribe upon, usually strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105AD a government worker going by the name of Tsai Lung, developed usable paper, though it seems from archaeological digs that in fact it was being used in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two centuries before Tsai Lung.
Way back during times gone by setting down words or pictograms was usually done on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. Nonetheless the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being too weighty, these materials were not convenient. About this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing bark, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he put an idea to the emperor on the process of paper manufacture and got much praise for his abilities. From those distant days paper has been used in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this historical reference is Tsai's entitlement or not, will likely never be known! Nevertheless the major factor is that the discovery was made that they could grind some compounds derived from plants in to a paste, abolish unwanted materials, place the paste in water, screen it onto fabric sheets and give it time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it compressed into a hard, robust sheet that turned out to be exceedingly light, and provided that it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be really dense.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making techniques is even now practised in exactly the same way in Tibet and Nepal, the first areas to pick up the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame has a cotton cloth stretched over one side, watery mache is poured into the other end and spread about until it is smooth. After which it is suspended somewhere to let the liquid to drain and the grume to dry into a sheet of paper which will be able to be taken off.
As time passed an extremely talented individual came to the conclusion that manufacturing a frame with ribbing and placing a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making process to be quickened enormously. Rather than tying up a single mold for every paper sheet, consequently severely limiting the number of sheets that may be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved mush could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them in order to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed gently, and each layer of pulp shifted to a dry board.