The history of true paper began in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost five thousand years ago, invented a pictographic form of writing. They too had been using various objects to scribe on, most commonly pieces of bamboo and woven silk and possibly the barkcloth they made for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of as well.
Historical documentation tells us that in 105AD a government worker going by the name of Tsai Lung, developed usable paper, though it is clear from finds by archaeologists that it was in fact around in China for more than likely two centuries before him.
During ancient times gone by setting down words was generally done on some derivative of bamboo or occasionally on lengths of silk, which were known as Ji then. But the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these two materials were inconvenient. Due to these factors Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of tree bark, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor regarding the process of paper manufacture and received much praise for his abilities. Consequently, since those days paper has been utilized all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this title is deserved or not, will very likely never be uncovered! Nonetheless the important thing must be that it was discovered that they could pound some substances taken from plant matter into a mache, bstract unwanted substances, float the mache in water, sieve it out onto cloth sheets allowing it to dry. When fully dried, it compressed into a firm, tenacious sheet that was decidedly light, and as long as it was not allowed to come into contact with water, proved incredibly dense.
This the most simple of papermaking techniques is still practised in exactly a similar way in Nepal and Tibet, the initial regions to pick up the technolgies from South East Asia. A basic frame utilizes a kind of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, diluted grume is situated in to the other side and spread around until it has become even. After which it is left suspended so that it will allow the liquid to drain out of it and the mash to dry in to a sheet of paper which can be stripped off.
At some stage an extremely talented developer came to the conclusion that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting a delicate bamboo mat that is removable across it, would let the paper-making procedure to be accelerated to a much greater degree. Instead of tying up one mold for each parchment sheet, therefore severely limiting the amount of sheets that can be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp was able to be built up layer upon layer, with just a length of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and every sheet of paste transferred to a dry place.