The history of genuine paper began in China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, virtually 50 centuries ago, invented a kind of writing that used images. The Egyptians also had been using several kinds of objects to scribe on, most commonly lengths of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they were making for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government called Tsai Lung, brought out paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological finds that actually it was being worked with in South East Asia for at least two hundred years before him.
During olden times writing was generally on bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were called Ji in those days. Nonetheless the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were not convenient. Around then Tsai Lun thought of utilizing the bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and received many accolades for his idea. Consequently, from this time paper has been used globally and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this particular claim is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will probably never be uncovered! However, the most important consideration must be that they discovered that they could pound certain plant-derived compounds into a grume, separate impure substances, place the grume in water, sieve it out onto textile sheets and allow it to dry. After drying, it conglomerated into a firm, dense sheet that turned out to be very light, and provided that it did not get wet, proved extraordinarily tenacious.
This easiest of papermaking technologies is still practised in exactly a similar way within Tibet and Nepal, the initial places to take the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame utilizes a cloth manufactured from cotton pulled and held over one side, diluted mash is poured in to the far side and spread about until it has become even. Then it is left suspended that will let the liquid to drain and the mache to dry into a sheet of paper which will be able to be removed by stripping off.
There came a time when an extremely talented individual worked out that making a frame with ribs and placing a fine replaceable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making process to be speeded up to a much greater degree. Rather than using a single mould for each paper sheet, consequently severely restricting the number of sheets that may be produced at one time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed slightly, and every sheet of pulp transferred to a board to dry.