The history of true paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost five thousand years in the past, invented a pictographic type of writing. They also had been making use of several types of objects to scribe on, most commonly strips of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
History points to the fact that in 105AD a member of the government called Tsai Lung, created paper, though it seems from archaeological digs that in fact it was being worked with in China for probably two hundred years prior to him.
Back during olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally done on some form of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nevertheless silk was expensive and bamboo being too heavy, these materials were inconvenient. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor about the production of paper and got many accolades for his ideas. Since that time paper has been availed of all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this particular claim is deserved, will very likely never be uncovered! But the important consideration has to be that they discovered that they could pound particular plant-derived substances in to a grume, abolish impure substances, place the grume in liquid, screen it onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. After drying, it dried into a firm, firm sheet that turned out to be astonishingly light, and provided that it did not get damp, turned out to be really resilient.
This simplest of paper making techniques is even now practised in precisely the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the initial areas to learn the craft from South East Asia. A basic frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton stretched over one side, very watery paste is put into the opposite end and moved around until it has reached an even state. After which it is left suspended that will let the water to drain and the mache to dry into a sheet of parchment which can be taken off.
There came a time when a very talented individual figured that constructing a frame with ribbing and putting a delicate replaceable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making process to be accelerated to a great degree. Rather than utilizing one mould for each paper sheet, consequently severely restricting the number of sheets that are able to be made at the same time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up layer upon layer, with only a length of cotton thread between them in order to help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very lightly, and every layer of pulp transferred to a dry board.