The story of real paper began in South East Asia. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually fifty centuries ago, brought out a type of pictographic writing. They also had been making use of several types of objects to scribe upon, most usually strips of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other reasons derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
Legend tells us that in 105AD an official going by the name of Tsai Lung, created papyrus, although it is clear from archaeological finds that actually it was being worked with in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two hundred years before him.
In ancient times gone by scribing was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or on pieces of silk, which were called Ji in those days. However, the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were not convenient. Around then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing bark from trees, fish nets, rags, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor on the process of making paper and got much praise for his creativity. Consequently, since those days paper has been availed of all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this historical reference is Tsai's entitlement, will very likely not ever be known! Nevertheless the main factor has to be that the discovery was made that they could pound particular compounds derived from plant material in to a mush, separate unwanted substances, float the mush in water, screen it onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. After the drying process was complete, it compacted into a firm, firm sheet that turned out to be really light, and as long as it did not get wet, proved particularly tenacious.
This most simple of paper making techniques is still in use in precisely the same way in Tibet and Nepal, the initial places to learn the techniques from China. A basic frame has a type of cotton cloth stretched over one side, diluted pulp is emptied into the other side and spread about until it has reached a level. Then it is left suspended somewhere to allow the liquid to drain out of it and the mash to dry in to a sheet of paper which can be removed.
At some stage an extremely talented individual came to realize that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and placing a fine replaceable bamboo mat over it, would enable the paper-making procedure to be quickened greatly. Instead of tying up one mould for each parchment sheet, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that can be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved grume was able to be built up layer upon layer, with only a piece of cotton thread between them which would facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed very gently, and every layer of mache shifted to a board to dry.