The history of real paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 5000 years in the past, invented a style of writing that used pictures. They too had been using many different kinds of objects to write upon, most usually strips of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
History points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government named Tsai Lung, created paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was in existence in China for at least two centuries prior to him.
In times gone by setting down words was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless silk was expensive and bamboo being heavy, these materials were inconvenient. Due to this Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor about the production of paper and was endowed with many accolades for his ideas. Consequently, from those distant times paper has been availed of all over and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this historical reference is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will likely not ever be known! But the major consideration has to be that they found that if they pounded particular compounds derived from plant matter into a pulp, take out impurities, float the pulp in liquid, filter it onto cloth sheets giving it time to dry. After the drying process was complete, it compacted into a hard, dense sheet that was extremely light, and as long as it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be remarkably tough.
It's a fact that this extremely simple of papermaking techniques is still in use in precisely the same way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the initial regions to learn the craft from South East Asia. A basic frame utilizes a cloth made from cotton stretched over a single side, watery mash is put in to the opposite end and spread about until it is even. After which it is suspended somewhere to allow the water to leave it and the mache to dry in to a paper sheet which will be able to be stripped off.
Eventually an extremely talented individual worked out that making a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and placing a delicate removable bamboo mat over this, would enable the procedure to be accelerated to a much greater degree. Rather than tying up one mould for each parchment sheet, severely restricting the amount of sheets that are able to be produced at one time, a stack of sieved mush was able to be built up layer upon layer, with only a piece of cotton thread between them which would facilitate separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very slightly, and every layer of paste shifted to a board to dry.