The history of true paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries ago, invented a style of writing that used pictures. They too had been using many different kinds of objects to write on, most usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Historical documentation leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, although it is almost certain from archaeological finds that in fact it was being used in China for at least two centuries before Tsai Lung.
Back in olden times scribing was generally done on bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were called Ji in those days. Nevertheless silk was expensive and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were inconvenient. About this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing the bark from trees, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and was endowed with many accolades for his ability. Consequently, from this time paper has been used in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above title is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will probably not ever be known! But the important thing has to be that the discovery was made that they could grind some compounds taken from plants into a mush, withdraw unwanted materials, put the mush in liquid, sieve it out onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. When it dried, it calcified into a hard, durable sheet that turned out to be incredibly light, and providing it did not get damp, turned out to be extraordinarily firm.
This simplest of paper making techniques is even now practised in precisely the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the very first areas to take the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame has a kind of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, watery paste is emptied in to the opposite end and spread about until it is level. Then it is left suspended so that it will enable the water to drain and the pulp to dry into a paper sheet which may be removed by peeling.
As time passed an extremely talented individual realized that building a frame with ribs and putting in place a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across this, would allow the paper-making process to be quickened to a much greater degree. Rather than utilizing a single mould for each sheet of paper, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that may be made at one time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed gently, and every sheet of mache shifted to a place to dry.