The history of true paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly fifty centuries ago, created a pictographic form of writing. They too had been making use of many different things to write upon, most notably lengths of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other uses derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
Legend tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government going by the name of Tsai Lung, invented paper, although it is clear from archaeological digs that it was in fact in existence in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to him.
Back during times gone by setting down words was usually done on bamboo or on strips of silk, which were known as Ji then. However, silk being expensive and the weight of bamboo, these two materials were not of great use. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing tree bark, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor about the process of paper making and was endowed with high accolade for his idea. Consequently, from that period paper has been utilized every place and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this historical reference is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will likely never be known! Nevertheless the important thing is that the discovery was made that if they pounded particular plant-derived substances into a grume, displace impurities, place the grume in liquid, filter it out onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. After drying, it caked into a hard, robust sheet that turned out to be astonishingly light, and as long as it was not allowed to get damp, turned out to be remarkably tenacious.
This the easiest of papermaking technologies is even now practised in exactly the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the first regions to learn the technolgies from China. A simple frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton stretched over a single side, watery pulp is poured in to the opposite side and moved around until it is level. Then it is suspended somewhere to enable the water to drain and the paste to dry in to a parchment sheet which may be peeled off.
Eventually a developer with great skills worked out that making a frame with ribbing and placing a delicate removable bamboo mat across it, would allow the paper-making procedure to be accelerated enormously. Rather than tying up a single mould for each paper sheet, severely limiting the amount of sheets that are able to be made at one time, a stack of sieved mache could be built up a layer at a time, with just a piece of cotton thread between them which would enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed very gently, and every layer of mush transferred to a board to dry.