Seeing this question, we first have to solve what is called "illegal practice of medicine".
According to Article 336 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the crime of illegal practice of medicine is to engage in diagnostic and therapeutic activities without a doctor's professional qualification certificate, including diagnostic and therapeutic activities in medical institutions and unauthorized practice of diagnostic and therapeutic activities. To put it simply, no matter Chinese medicine practitioners or Western medicine practitioners, they have to get something called doctor's professional qualification certificate, otherwise, all medical activities in which they make diagnosis of diseases through various examinations without authorization and borrow drugs, instruments and surgeries, etc., for patients to eliminate diseases, alleviate their conditions, relieve their pains, prolong their lives, and improve their pathologies or physiological conditions are all illegal behaviors.
Secondly, the questioner raises the issue of today's folk herbalists treating others for free, and the restrictions are missing here.
First, do these folk herbalists have professional licenses as doctors? If so, then these doctors are in their spare time to provide patients with the obligatory behavior, charge or not just his personal orientation, does not constitute illegal. Good doctors who treat others for free, I would admire and support their help to patients.
If you don't have the relevant qualifications, you will be penalized for misdiagnosis and damage to the health of others in the course of medical treatment, and you will face the crime of practicing medicine illegally if you don't change your ways of doing things.
Secondly, why did the questioner mention the word "Chinese medicine" when there is no free treatment in Western medicine? In fact, this implies that many people have a misunderstanding of "Chinese medicine", and many people think that because of its long history, Chinese medicine does not require documents. This argument is completely insulting to the profession of doctors, many regular hospitals in the Chinese medicine are certified to practice medicine.
Medicine is an extremely serious and lifelong learning profession, and both Western and Chinese medicine require documentation to support professionalism. Our medical undergraduate degree usually takes five years, plus a few years of internship before you can officially pass the licensing exam. Arguably, this is a way to ensure that patients have the greatest possible chance of not encountering medical malpractice.
Chinese medicine is indeed a treasure handed down from thousands of years in China, with a fairly well-developed system of knowledge of Chinese medicine, but it also has its drawbacks. Many people on the study of Chinese medicine may only half-understand, and can not understand the real essence of Chinese medicine, thinking that read the basic medical and dispensing books will be able to "pots to help the world", this behavior is not correct.
Yogurt from childhood to know a lot of very powerful Chinese medicine, but they do not only Chinese medicine, they will be Chinese medicine of the overall conditioning and Western medicine equipment testing combined to make the most complete diagnosis of the patient's illness. It is impossible for someone who has not seriously studied Chinese medicine and Western medicine nor obtained the relevant qualifications to make the most accurate judgment of pathology. Can you put your life in the hands of a "local doctor" who is not certified by the state, and if you are cured, if you are not cured, then who are we going to hold responsible?
Although Chinese medicine is not evidence-based, but in the general environment, or find some of the documents of the Chinese medicine to see a safe point, after all, on the doctor for their own good.
In summary, the folk do not charge to see the doctor's Chinese medicine, if there is a qualification certificate, then it does not belong to the illegal practice of medicine, if not, then it is certainly a violation of the crime of illegal practice of medicine.