The origins of true paper began in South East Asia. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries ago, invented a style of pictographic writing. They too had been making use of many different types of objects to scribe on, notably strips of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they were making for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker named Tsai Lung, developed usable paper, though it appears from archaeological finds that it was actually being used in China for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Way back during ancient times gone by writing was generally on some form of bamboo or sometimes on lengths of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these two materials were not of great use. Then Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105AD he submitted a report to the emperor regarding the production of paper and was endowed with high praise for his ideas. Consequently, since that time paper has been used all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this particular claim is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will probably not ever be known! Nonetheless the important thing must be that it was discovered that if they pounded particular substances derived from plant material into a pulp, cut out impure substances, put the pulp in water, filter it onto textile sheets and allow it to dry. When fully dried, it consolidated into a hard, firm sheet that was decidedly light, and provided that it was not allowed to get wet, turned out to be remarkably dense.
It's a fact that this simple of papermaking technologies is even now practised in exactly the same way in Tibet and Nepal, the initial areas to learn the techniques from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame has a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, diluted mush is poured in to the far side and spread around until it has reached an even state. Then it is left hanging so that it will allow the liquid to leave it and the paste to dry in to a parchment sheet which can be removed by peeling.
By and by an extremely talented individual came to the conclusion that building a frame with ribs and putting in place a fine replaceable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making process to be accelerated enormously. Instead of tying up a single mold for every sheet of paper, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that could be produced at one time, a stack of sieved mash could be built up a layer at a time, with just a piece of cotton thread between them in order to enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed gently, and each sheet of grume moved to a board to dry.