Before papermaking technology was invented, Chinese carved or wrote characters on tortoise shells, animal bones, bambo slices, wooden plates, and thin tough silk. Tortoise shells, animal bones and wooden plates were too heavy to use while silk was too expensive. In the early years of Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 25 AD), someone used hemp and ramie to produce the paper, which was very rough and not suitable for writing.

Till Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220), an official named Cai Lun improved the papermaking technique after long-term experimentation. He used various kind of plant fibers, bark, rags, and torn fishing nets as raw materials. He steamed and cooked all those materials with water, and pounded them into pulp, then rolled the pulp out evenly on a fine screen and dried, this produced a kind of thin paper. The paper was also very cheap so it became very popular. Therefore, Cai Lun's contribution to the papermaking was great.

After Eastern Han Dynasty, papermaking technology had been dramatically improved. Bamboo, straw and sugarcane residue could also be used as the raw materials for making paper. Due to different materials, various types of paper were produced for different purpose. For example, Xuan paper made in Xuanzhou of Anhui province belongs to high-quality paper exclusively adapted for use in Chinese calligraphy and painting.

The technology was introduced to Korea and Japan in late Sui (581 - 618) and early Tang (618 - 907) dynasties, and later to Arabia and other countries. The invention of paper provides a more convenient way for the storage and communication of information, and also has an epoch-making significance on the promotion the development of global civilization.