The origins of proper paper started in South East Asia. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5,000 years ago, invented a pictographic type of writing. They too had been using several kinds of things to scribe on, usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and it is possible that the barkcloth they utilized for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
Historical documentation leads us to believe that in 105AD a member of the government called Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, though it is clear from archaeological digs that in fact it was in existence in China for at least two centuries prior to him.
Way back in olden times setting down words or pictograms was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were then called ji. But silk being expensive and bamboo being too heavy, these materials were not of great use. Around then Tsai Lun thought of utilizing bark, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he submitted a report to the emperor regarding the production of paper and was endowed with high praise for his abilities. Consequently, since then paper has been utilized globally and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this historical reference is correct or not, will very likely never be known! Nevertheless the important consideration has to be that they discovered that if they ground some compounds taken from plant material into a pulp, depose unwanted materials, float the pulp in liquid, screen it onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. After drying, it compressed into a hard, durable sheet that turned out to be really light, and as long as it was not allowed to come into contact with water, proved particularly tough.
It's a fact that this very easy of paper making techniques is even now in use in precisely the same way around Tibet and Nepal, the very first regions to make use of the technolgies from what is now the People's Republic of China. A basic frame has a cloth made from cotton stretched over a single side, very watery mache is situated in to the other side and spread about until it has reached a level. After which it is left so that it will allow the water to drain and the grume to dry into a parchment sheet which will be able to be removed by stripping off.
As time passed an extremely clever individual worked out that constructing a frame with ribbing and putting a fine bamboo mat that is removable across this, would enable the paper-making procedure to be speeded up enormously. Instead of tying up one mold for each sheet of parchment, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that are able to be produced at one time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with just a length of cotton thread between them to help with separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very gently, and every sheet of paste transferred to a place to dry.