The history of real paper started in South East Asia. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 5,000 years ago, developed a style of pictographic writing. They too had been making use of many different kinds of things to write on, most commonly lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were using for other purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
History points to the fact that in 105AD a member of the government called Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, though it is almost certain from archaeological digs that in fact it was around in China for probably two hundred years prior to Tsai Lung.
Way back in olden times setting down words or pictograms was generally on some form of bamboo or on pieces of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these two materials were inconvenient. At this time Tsai Lun thought of using the bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he submitted a report to the emperor with regard to the process of making paper and got much praise for his creativity. Consequently, from that period paper has been availed of universally and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above title is Tsai's entitlement, will very likely not ever be known! However, the important factor must be that it was found that they could grind particular compounds taken from plants into a mash, expunge impurities, float the mash in water, screen it onto cloth sheets and allow it to dry. When fully dried, it compressed into a hard, tenacious sheet that turned out to be remarkably light, and provided that it was not allowed to get wet, turned out to be exceedingly robust.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making techniques is even now still being used in precisely the same way within Tibet and Nepal, the very first areas to pick up the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame has a cotton cloth pulled and held over a single side, watery mache is situated in to the opposite end and spread about until it is level. It is then left hanging somewhere to enable the liquid to leave it and the mush to dry into a sheet of parchment which may be taken off.
At some stage an extremely talented individual realized that building a frame with ribs and putting a fine removable bamboo mat across it, would allow the process to be quickened incredibly. Instead of tying up a single mold for each parchment sheet, therefore severely limiting the number of sheets that may be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up layer upon layer, with just a piece of cotton thread between them to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed very gently, and every sheet of grume shifted to a dry place.