The origins of true paper began in South East Asia. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5,000 years ago, developed a pictographic type of writing. They also had been utilizing many different types of objects to scribe on, most commonly pieces of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they used for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of also.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD a member of the government called Tsai Lung, invented usable paper, though it is clear from archaeological digs that in fact it was being used in what is now the People's Republic of China for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
During ancient times writing was mainly on bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were called Ji in those days. However, the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were not of great use. Due to this Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark from trees, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he made a report to the emperor regarding the production of paper and received high praise for his abilities. From those days paper has been utilized all over and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If this title is Tsai's entitlement, will probably never be known! But the most important consideration has to be that the discovery was made that they could pound some compounds taken from plant material into a mache, take away impurities, put the mache in water, sieve it out onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. When fully dried, it conglomerated into a hard, tough sheet that turned out to be astonishingly light, and providing it was not allowed to come into contact with water, proved extremely firm.
It's a fact that this very simple of paper making technologies is even now still being used in precisely a similar way in and around Nepal and Tibet, the very first countries to pick up the technolgies from China. A basic frame makes use of a kind of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, very watery pulp is put in to the opposite side and spread around until it has reached an even state. After which it is suspended in order for it to allow the liquid to drain out of it and the paste to dry in to a sheet of paper which may be peeled off.
Eventually an extremely clever individual came to the conclusion that constructing a frame with ribbing and placing a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable across this, would let the paper-making process to be quickened incredibly. Instead of tying up a single mould for every paper sheet, consequently severely restricting the amount of sheets that may be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with only a piece of cotton thread between them in order to facilitate separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very slightly, and each layer of mush transferred to a dry place.