The invention discloses a tunneling method of shield equipment in high-viscosity mudstone. The method comprises steps as follows: 1, a water-jet cutter device is mounted, and whether a washing pipeline is smooth is checked; 2, whether mud cakes are attached to a cutter head is checked; 3, pre-cleaning is performed, and circulation parameters and tunneling parameters of a shield machine are set; 4, shield tunneling is performed, and operation parameters of the shield equipment are detected in real time; 5, whether the slag discharge amount is reduced is judged; 6, whether pressure of a mud water bin fluctuates abnormally is judged; 7, whether shield tunneling ends is judged; 8, delayed cleaning is performed. The water-jet cutter device is arranged for washing and cutting mud blocks effectively, and bin opening for manual cleaning is avoided; by means of a stone breaker, small mud blocks, mixed stone and other hard articles in mud are broken, blockage in the circulation process of slurry is avoided; the inverse cleaning procedure is set, so that the washing pipeline can be more effectively and automatically cleaned.