The story of real paper started in South East Asia. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost five thousand years ago, brought out a pictographic form of writing. The Egyptians also had been making use of many different kinds of things to scribe on, notably pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other uses derived from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Legend tells us that in 105AD a government worker by the name of Tsai Lung, created papyrus, although it appears from finds by archaeologists that in fact it was around in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back during ancient times gone by scribing was mainly done on bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these materials were not of great use. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using the bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and got high praise for his creativity. Since that time paper has been availed of in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this title is Tsai's entitlement or not, will very likely not ever be known! Nonetheless the important factor is that it was found that if they pounded some substances derived from plant matter into a paste, purge impurities, put the paste in liquid, sieve it out onto fabric sheets allowing it to dry. When fully dried, it calcified into a firm, dense sheet that was surprisingly light, and providing it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be decidedly tenacious.
This easiest of papermaking techniques is still practised in exactly the same way within Nepal and Tibet, the very first regions to pick up the craft from China. A simple frame has a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, very watery mush is emptied in to the opposite end and spread about until it is level. Then it is suspended somewhere to let the water to drain and the pulp to dry in to a sheet of parchment which may be removed by stripping off.
By and by an extremely clever individual worked out that making a frame with ribs and putting a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would enable the procedure to be accelerated greatly. Rather than using one mould for each parchment sheet, consequently severely restricting the amount of sheets that can be made at one time, a stack of sieved grume was able to be built up a layer at a time, with only a piece of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very lightly, and every sheet of mache shifted to a dry place.