The story of real paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly 50 centuries ago, developed a style of writing that used images. They too had been making use of various kinds of objects to scribe on, notably lengths of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological finds that it was in fact being worked with in China for probably two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
In ancient times setting down words was mainly done on bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. However, silk was expensive and bamboo being too weighty, these two materials were not convenient. Then Tsai Lun thought of using the bark from trees, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor with regard to the process of paper making and received high praise for his abilities. From this time paper has been utilized all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this accolade is deserved, will likely never be uncovered! Nevertheless the important thing has to be that they found that they could grind particular compounds taken from plant material into a mache, purge impure substances, float the mache in liquid, sieve it onto textile sheets allowing it to dry. When fully dried, it consolidated into a hard, tough sheet that turned out to be remarkably light, and as long as it was not allowed to get damp, turned out to be particularly dense.
It's a fact that this very simple of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in exactly the same way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the very first areas to pick up the techniques from South East Asia. A simple frame has a cloth manufactured from cotton stretched over one side, watery pulp is poured in to the opposite side and spread around until it has reached an even state. After which it is left in order for it to enable the water to drain out of it and the paste to dry into a sheet of paper which may be removed by peeling.
As time passed a very talented individual worked out that constructing a frame with ribs and placing a fine bamboo mat that is removable across it, would let the procedure to be speeded up greatly. Rather than tying up a single mold for every sheet of parchment, therefore severely restricting the number of sheets that could be produced at one time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with merely a length of cotton thread between them in order to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed slightly, and each sheet of grume shifted to a place to dry.