1 Bamboo segments were cut and soaked in ponds to loosen the tough outer layer.	2 The pulp was then produced using ground and boiled bamboo, hemp and cloth rag.	3 A thin layer of the mixed pulp was lifted and strained from a vat using a finely screen
4 The resulting sheet was pressed to release lingering moisture forming sheets of paper.	5 They are mounted to be smoothened out	6 They are then applied to the sides of awood-fired heated wall for final drying.

The variety of material played an important role in papermaking development. Hemp and bark were the main material for making paper in Han Dynasty , while during the Wei and Jin dynasties (220-420), mulberry bark paper and cane paper were invented.

With the development of society and culture, paper was widely used and the technique of papermaking continued to improve.

Bamboo was used to make paper later in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) as it grew rapidly in large quantities, and its long fiber, fine and strong, made it excellent papermaking material. However, the technique required to make bamboo paper was complicated. Therefore, people continued to look for other materials, experimenting with a mixture of different proportions of many kinds of plant fiber to produce different kinds of paper.

Zhi Yao (paper medicine) was an important invention in papermaking. In papermaking, laborers often put some plants mucilage (solution of gum, glue, and so on) in the paper pulp. In ancient times, the mucilage was called Zhi Yao.

Zhi Yao was used as a deflocculant (an agent which can prevent certain materials from sticking together), which can prevent the viscidity (sticking together) of textile fiber. Ancient Chinese people commonly squeezed out mucilage from the yellow hollyhock, carambola cane, rose of Sharon, and so on.