The origins of true paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually five thousand years in the past, invented a type of writing that used pictures. They too had been utilizing various types of objects to write on, most usually pieces of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
History tells us that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker going by the name of Tsai Lung, developed usable paper, although it appears from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was being used in South East Asia for more than likely two hundred years before him.
Way back during ancient times gone by writing was generally on bamboo or on strips of silk, which were called Ji in those days. Nonetheless silk was expensive and the weight of bamboo, these two materials were not convenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor regarding the process of paper manufacture and got high accolade for his abilities. Consequently, from this time paper has been utilized all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this historical reference is Tsai's entitlement or not, will very likely never be known! Nevertheless the main consideration has to be that they discovered that they could grind particular substances derived from plant matter into a paste, eliminate unwanted materials, place the paste in liquid, screen it onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. After drying, it compressed into a hard, dense sheet that turned out to be very light, and provided that it did not get damp, turned out to be really tenacious.
This the easiest of papermaking techniques is even now still being used in exactly the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the initial areas to learn the techniques from China. A basic frame makes use of a kind of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, watery mash is poured in to the other side and spread around until it is even. Then it is suspended in order for it to enable the water to drain and the mush to dry into a sheet of parchment which may be removed by peeling.
By and by a very clever individual came to realize that building a frame with ribs and putting in place a fine removable bamboo mat across this, would allow the paper-making process to be speeded up to a great degree. Rather than using a single mould for every paper sheet, severely restricting the amount of sheets that may be made at one time, a stack of sieved mache could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed lightly, and each layer of grume shifted to a dry place.