The origins of proper paper began in China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost fifty centuries in the past, invented a type of writing that used images. The Egyptians too had been using many different things to write on, notably strips of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker by the name of Tsai Lung, brought out paper, though it is almost certain from archaeological discoveries that it was in fact being worked with in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two centuries before Tsai Lung.
Back in times gone by setting down words was mainly on bamboo or sometimes on pieces of silk, which were known as Ji then. But silk was expensive and the weight of bamboo, these two materials were not of great use. Then Tsai Lun thought of utilizing the bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor regarding the production of paper and got high praise for his thoughts. Consequently, from those distant times paper has been availed of globally and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this accolade is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will probably never be known! However, the most important thing has to be that it was found that they could pound some compounds derived from plant matter in to a mash, eliminate unwanted materials, put the mash in liquid, filter it out onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. When it dried, it conglomerated into a firm, dense sheet that turned out to be astonishingly light, and provided that it did not get wet, turned out to be really tenacious.
It's a fact that this very straightforward of paper making techniques is still being used in exactly a similar way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the initial countries to make use of the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame utilises a kind of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, watery grume is put into the far end and spread around until it has become even. It is then left suspended in order for it to allow the water to leave it and the paste to dry in to a sheet of parchment which can be removed.
There came a time when a developer with great skills figured that building a frame with ribs and putting a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over this, would let the paper-making procedure to be speeded up to a great degree. Rather than tying up a single mold for every parchment sheet, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mache was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a piece of cotton thread between them in order to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed very gently, and each sheet of pulp shifted to a dry board.