The origins of true paper began in South East Asia. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly fifty centuries ago, invented a pictographic style of writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of several kinds of things to write upon, most usually pieces of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other reasons derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Legend tells us that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, developed paper, though it seems from archaeological digs that it was in fact being used in China for probably two centuries prior to him.
Back in times gone by setting down words or pictograms was mainly done on some form of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these two materials were not convenient. Around then Tsai Lun thought of utilizing bark, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he put an idea to the emperor regarding the process of making paper and was endowed with high accolade for his ideas. Consequently, from those distant days paper has been used everywhere and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this accolade is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will very likely never be known! However, the main consideration must be that they discovered that they could pound some substances derived from plants in to a mache, depose impure substances, place the mache in liquid, screen it onto textile sheets and allow it to dry. When fully dried, it congealed into a hard, tough sheet that was incredibly light, and providing it did not come into contact with water, proved surprisingly firm.
This most simple of paper making technologies is still being used in precisely the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the initial places to make use of the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame makes use of a kind of cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, diluted mash is situated into the far end and spread about until it has become even. It is then left that will let the water to leave it and the paste to dry into a parchment sheet which may be removed by peeling.
By and by a developer with great skills came to the conclusion that making a frame with ribs and putting a delicate removable bamboo mat across it, would enable the process to be speeded up to a much greater degree. Rather than tying up one mould for every sheet of paper, consequently severely restricting the number of sheets that may be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp was able to be built up layer upon layer, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them to facilitate separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very slightly, and each layer of grume shifted to a place to dry.