The origins of genuine paper started in South East Asia. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly five thousand years ago, created a pictographic form of writing. They also had been making use of many different things to scribe upon, most usually strips of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were using for other purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
History tells us that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, invented papyrus, though it appears from finds by archaeologists that in fact it was being used in China for at least two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
Way back during times gone by writing was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were called Ji in those days. Nevertheless silk was expensive and bamboo being weighty, these materials were inconvenient. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using tree bark, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he put an idea to the emperor about the production of paper and was endowed with much praise for his idea. Since that time paper has been availed of every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this title is deserved or not, will likely never be uncovered! However, the major consideration must be that the discovery was made that if they pounded particular compounds derived from plant matter in to a mash, cut out unwanted substances, place the mash in water, sieve it onto textile sheets and give it time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it dried into a hard, dense sheet that turned out to be extraordinarily light, and providing it did not get damp, turned out to be particularly firm.
It's a fact that this most simple of papermaking techniques is even now in use in exactly the same way in Nepal and Tibet, the very first places to pick up the technolgies from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame has a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, watery grume is situated into the other end and moved around until it has become even. Then it is left suspended in order for it to let the liquid to drain out of it and the pulp to dry into a paper sheet which will be able to be removed by peeling.
As time went by a clever developer came to the conclusion that building a frame with ribs and putting a fine bamboo mat that is removable across this, would enable the paper-making process to be accelerated enormously. Rather than using a single mold for each parchment sheet, consequently severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved mache was able to be built up a layer at a time, with only a piece of cotton thread between them to enable later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and every layer of paste moved to a dry board.