The origins of true paper began in China. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost five thousand years ago, developed a form of pictographic writing. They too had been using many different things to write upon, most commonly lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
History leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government named Tsai Lung, invented paper, though it seems from archaeological digs that it was in fact in existence in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two hundred years before him.
Back during ancient times writing was usually done on some form of bamboo or sometimes on pieces of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nonetheless the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were not convenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor regarding the process of paper making and received many accolades for his ability. Consequently, since those days paper has been availed of everywhere and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this historical reference is Tsai's entitlement or not, will likely never be known! But the important thing has to be that they discovered that they could grind certain plant-derived compounds into a paste, cut out spume, float the paste in water, screen it out onto textile sheets and give it time to dry out. After the drying process was complete, it conglomerated into a firm, resilient sheet that turned out to be incredibly light, and as long as it was not allowed to get wet, turned out to be remarkably firm.
It's a fact that this extremely simple of paper making techniques is even now practised in exactly a similar way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the very first countries to make use of the craft from South East Asia. A basic frame utilises a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, very watery pulp is emptied in to the other side and moved around until it has reached an even state. Then it is left in order for it to let the liquid to drain and the mush to dry in to a paper sheet which can be removed.
At some point in time an extremely talented developer realized that making a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and placing a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable across it, would allow the paper-making process to be quickened greatly. Instead of using one mold for each parchment sheet, therefore severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be made at one time, a stack of sieved grume was able to be built up layer upon layer, with just a strip of cotton thread between them to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and every sheet of mache moved to a dry board.