The history of true paper began in China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly five thousand years in the past, developed a style of pictographic writing. They also had been making use of many different types of things to scribe upon, most usually strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of as well.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105AD an official by the name of Tsai Lung, invented usable paper, although it appears from archaeological finds that in fact it was being used in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back during olden times writing was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or occasionally on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. However, silk was expensive and bamboo being heavy, these two materials were inconvenient. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he submitted a report to the emperor about the process of making paper and received high accolade for his inventions. Since then paper has been utilized all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this accolade is relevant, will probably never be known! Nevertheless what is important has to be that the discovery was made that if they pounded some compounds taken from plant material in to a pulp, withdraw unwanted substances, float the pulp in water, filter it out onto textile sheets and allow it to dry. After the drying process was complete, it consolidated into a firm, resilient sheet that turned out to be extraordinarily light, and as long as it did not come into contact with water, turned out to be really durable.
It's a fact that this simple of papermaking technologies is even now practised in precisely a similar way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial areas to take the craft from South East Asia. A simple frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, thin mush is emptied into the other side and spread about until it has reached an even state. It is then suspended somewhere to enable the liquid to leave it and the mache to dry into a sheet of parchment which may be taken off.
As time passed a very clever individual came to realize that making a frame with ribbing and putting a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over this, would let the procedure to be accelerated incredibly. Instead of using a single mould for each sheet of paper, severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be made at the same time, a stack of sieved paste was able to be built up layer upon layer, with only a length of cotton thread between them to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and every layer of mash shifted to a dry place.