The history of genuine paper started in China. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 50 centuries in the past, invented a pictographic form of writing. The Egyptians too had been utilizing various objects to write upon, most usually pieces of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
History points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official by the name of Tsai Lung, created usable paper, though it appears from finds by archaeologists that it was in fact in existence in South East Asia for probably two hundred years before him.
Back in ancient times writing was generally on bamboo or occasionally on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nevertheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were inconvenient. Due to this Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor about the process of making paper and got many accolades for his abilities. Consequently, from those distant times paper has been in use every place and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this accolade is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will very likely never be uncovered! However, the main factor must be that it was found that they could grind certain substances derived from plants into a mache, expunge unwanted materials, place the mache in water, screen it out onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. After drying, it compressed into a firm, robust sheet that turned out to be exceedingly light, and as long as it did not get wet, turned out to be very dense.
This simplest of paper making technologies is even now practised in precisely a similar way around Nepal and Tibet, the initial countries to learn the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame utilizes a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, watery grume is emptied in to the opposite end and moved around until it has reached an even state. After which it is left hanging in order for it to let the liquid to drain out of it and the mash to dry into a parchment sheet which can be removed.
At some stage a very talented individual realized that making a frame with ribs and placing a fine bamboo mat that is removable across this, would allow the procedure to be accelerated to a much greater degree. Instead of using one mold for each paper sheet, severely limiting the amount of sheets that can be produced at one time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up a layer at a time, with only a length of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed gently, and every layer of paste shifted to a dry board.