The origins of true paper began in South East Asia. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5,000 years in the past, brought out a pictographic form of writing. The Egyptians too had been making use of many different kinds of things to scribe upon, most usually strips of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they used for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was also used.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, created usable paper, though it seems from archaeological finds that actually it was being worked with in China for at least two centuries prior to him.
Way back in ancient times gone by setting down words was mainly done on some form of bamboo or occasionally on pieces of silk, which were called Ji in those days. But the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were not convenient. At this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using the bark from trees, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor about the process of paper manufacture and got much praise for his idea. From those distant days paper has been utilized every place and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this historical reference is accurate or not, will probably never be uncovered! Nevertheless the main factor has to be that it was found that they could pound particular compounds taken from plant matter into a mush, expunge impure substances, float the mush in liquid, screen it onto cloth sheets giving it time to dry. After drying, it compressed into a hard, durable sheet that turned out to be astonishingly light, and provided that it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be extremely robust.
It's a fact that this most simple of papermaking techniques is even now in use in precisely a similar way within Tibet and Nepal, the very first places to pick up the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame utilises a cloth manufactured from cotton stretched over a single side, very watery pulp is emptied in to the other side and moved around until it has reached a level. It is then left somewhere to let the water to drain out of it and the grume to dry in to a parchment sheet which will be able to be removed by stripping off.
There came a time when an extremely clever individual worked out that building a frame with ribs and putting in place a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable across this, would enable the procedure to be speeded up to a great degree. Rather than tying up a single mould for each sheet of parchment, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that can be manufactured at the same 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 to facilitate separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very gently, and every sheet of paste shifted to a dry board.