Paper as we know it today comes from another source - China. Excavations of tombs of the former Han Dynasty (207BC-9AD) have revealed silk cloth bearing the texts of Lao Tzu - the father of Taoism (born in 604BC). In 105 AD, Han Emperor Ho-Ti's chief eunuch T'sai Lun experimented with a wide variety of materials and refined the process of macerating the fibre of plants until each filament was completely separate.
The individual fibres were mixed with water in a large vat. Next, a screen was submerged in the vat and lifted up through the water,catching the fibers on its surface. When dried, this thin layer of intertwined fiber became what today we call paper. T'sai Lun's thin, yet flexible and strong paper with its fine, smooth surface was known as T'sai Ko-Shi , meaning: "Distinguished T'sai's Paper" and he became revered as the patron saint of papermaking.
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