The history of true paper started in South East Asia. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost fifty centuries in the past, invented a type of writing that used pictures. They too had been making use of various kinds of objects to scribe on, most notably lengths of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker going by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out usable paper, although it seems from archaeological discoveries that it was in fact around in China for at least two hundred years before him.
In olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were called Ji in those days. Nonetheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were inconvenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing the bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor on the production of paper and got many accolades for his thoughts. From those distant days paper has been used universally and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will likely never be known! Nevertheless what is important is that the discovery was made that they could pound particular compounds taken from plant material in to a mache, expunge unwanted substances, float the mache in liquid, sieve it out onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. When fully dried, it congealed 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 particularly robust.
This easiest of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in precisely a similar way in Nepal and Tibet, the very first countries to take the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame utilizes a cloth manufactured from cotton pulled and held over one side, thin pulp is emptied into the far side and spread around until it has reached a level. It is then left hanging that will allow the water to leave it and the mash to dry in to a sheet of paper which will be able to be removed.
Eventually a clever developer realized that making a frame with ribs and putting in place a delicate replaceable bamboo mat over this, would let the paper-making process to be quickened to a much greater degree. Instead of tying up one mould for every paper sheet, consequently severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and each sheet of grume shifted to a board to dry.