The story of genuine paper began in China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5000 years in the past, created a style of writing that used pictures. The Egyptians too had been using many different objects to scribe upon, usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105AD an official by the name of Tsai Lung, invented paper, although it is clear from archaeological finds that it was actually being used in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Way back in ancient times setting down words was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were called Ji in those days. However, the cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these two materials were not of great use. Around then Tsai Lun thought of making use of the bark from trees, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor about the production of paper and got high accolade for his ideas. Consequently, since those distant days paper has been availed of all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this accolade is correct or not, will probably not ever be known! But the major factor must be that they discovered that they could pound particular compounds taken from plant matter into a paste, abolish impure materials, put the paste in liquid, screen it out onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it calcified into a firm, resilient sheet that was astonishingly light, and providing it did not get wet, turned out to be extraordinarily durable.
This most simple of papermaking technologies is still being used in exactly the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the first places to learn the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame has a cloth made from cotton stretched over a single side, diluted pulp is put in to the opposite end and moved around until it is smooth. After which it is left suspended that will let the water to leave it and the mush to dry in to a sheet of parchment which can be removed.
There came a time when an extremely clever individual worked out that constructing a frame with ribs and placing a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making procedure to be accelerated greatly. Rather than tying up a single mould for every parchment sheet, consequently severely limiting the number of sheets that are able to be produced at one time, a stack of sieved grume could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them which would facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very slightly, and each sheet of mache shifted to a place to dry.